FateStay Diary
by WriteShop
Summary: What if, instead of summoning a Servant that shared his values, who was selfless and wanted to protect people, who was a perfect match for him, Shirou had summoned a servant who was obsessive, self absorbed and psychotic? say Yuno Gasai.
1. Chapter 1

For those of you who have already read chapter 1, there is little new material (just a few paragraphs) - I am just cleaning up the story a little bit as I transition it from a one-shot to a multi-chapter story.

I am also going to move this story to the Fate/Stay Night & Future Diary Crossover category, so please check for it there.

chapter 3 (the first new chapter) is going to go up in a few days

prologue

The car rolled to a stop most of the way down the pier. It was inside an industrial park, so at this time of night, there was nobody around, and the the lights from the warehouse did not reach this far out. Moving quickly, two men got out of the car and popped open the trunk. While the driver took up a lookout position, the passenger, a huge hairy mountain, hauled a third man - either unconscious or dead - out of the trunk and threw him into the water. He had concrete around his lower legs, so he sank without a trace. The whole procedure was done quickly and efficiently - these two had obviously done this sort of thing before. As the two thugs were getting back in their car, one of them stopped to pick something up.

"What are you doing? Hurry." insisted the driver.

"I think this fell out of his pocket" The larger thug held up two sheets of paper that looked to have been torn from a notebook.

The driver reached over, and using a pen light gave the sheets a once over, "then why are they wet, you stupid fuck? And it looks like some sort of French poetry" He gave an exasperated sigh.

"Well, then, I'll keep them" The mountain daintily folded up the papers and slipped them into the inside pocket of his suit.

FSD*FSD

She had been floating, lost this endless place. At the same time, it was both completely empty and also filled with huge clockwork gears. She wasn't certain how long she had been here. Was it a year? 10 years? 10 thousand years? Time had no meaning. The only sensation she felt was a gnawing loneliness. At first it hadn't been so bad - she had had a purpose. But then she had failed. She had not able to find her way out of this place, and now she no longer even remembered what she had planned to do.

Her memories of the time before 'here' were faded and frayed. "Yuki" she whispered. she remembered Yuki. Or she thought she did. Panic filled her as she realized she couldn't put a face to the name.

FSD*FSD

"Shirou, can you help me out with something?" Ayako Mitsuzuri walked over to the Fake Janitor, "You're good at fixing thing - can you do cell phones too?"

"Ah, I'm not certain" Cell phones were a bit on the complicated end for his tracing ability to handle, but Shirou hated turning down any request for help, especially one from an attractive girl. "I can take a look at it this evening. What's wrong with it?"

"Well" Ayako looked a little embarrassed, "I found this cell phone a couple of weeks ago in the dojo, and nobody's claimed it, and there is no SIM card in it" she said in a quick rush of words as she held up a flip phone with an odd keychain fob dangling from the bottom. The fob was in the shape of a purple humanoid with silver hair, a little like the troll figures that were all the rage ten years ago, "And well, it's a cute phone, so I was wondering if you could check it out, see if it's working properly"

'_Oh, that's not too hard' _"Yeah, I can take a look" Shirou examined the phone before slipping it into his pocket. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Ayako stood awkwardly for several moments, her hands clasped in front of her before finally saying "No. I guess I'll see you tomorrow." and walking off.

FSD*FSD

Pinpoint of light appeared in the distance. She was curious - this was the first new thing she had seen in an age, so she moved closer. It grew brighter and closer, until the light swallowed her.

"Will you be a champion, a Servant of the Grail?" a voice asked. She was in a white place now. She could not see the boundary of this space, but it was not the space between realities, the place of Akasha, where she had been before. It felt smaller, and artificial. After some thousands of years, her awareness of her home? Prison? had become quite fine.

"What is that?"she asked.

"You will act as a champion in the Holy Grail War. If you and your Master win, you will each be granted a wish." replied the sourceless voice. It sounded masculine.

"Any wish? I wish to be with my Yuki!" She pronounced.

"Will you be a champion, a Servant of the Grail?" The voice sounded pre-recorded, somehow.

"Yes!" Yuno Gasai proclaimed. Information slammed into her mind like a bolt of lightning, blinding and stunning her.

END


	2. Chapter 2

For those of you who have already read chapter 1, there is little new material (just a few paragraphs in the previous chapter) - I am just cleaning up the story a little bit as I transition it from a one-shot to a multi-chapter story.

I am also going to move this story to the Fate/Stay Night & Future Diary Crossover category, so please check for it there.

chapter 3 (the first new chapter) is going to go up in a few days

chapter 2

Shirou ran for all he was worth. He wasn't certain why he wasn't dead, given that the man in blue had rammed a spear through his heart, but he wanted to continue this happy state of affairs. So he ran for home, away from the battle that he had accidentally stumbled upon on the soccer field at school.

'_Oh, god. What were those'_ Shirou collapsed in his workshop on the Emya property. The way the two fighters had moved, it was clear they were not human, despite appearances. He locked the door and slumped onto a bench in shock. He was oblivious to the rise in magic as the mage's circle inscribed on the floor activated for the first time in a decade.

Shirou undid his shirt and checked out the place he had been stabbed. Other than a dark red scar, it looked ok. "I should be dead" He muttered.

"I agree completely" came the voice of the man in blue as a window burst apart, admitting the Lancer.

Shirou, in a panic grabbed the first thing that came to hand - a toilet plunger. "Trace on" he converted a nerve into a mage circuit and quickly reinforced the tool to be as hard as steel. He was used to the agony, and ignored it as he blocked the Lancer's attack. Neither one of the combatants noticed the pink haired teenager rising from the glowing circle on the floor.

"It really is too bad that I have to kill you, kid. You have a strong spirit" Lancer sighed, but that was the way of the warrior - sometimes your friends ended up on the wrong side of a feud, and the only thing you could do was to give them an honorable death. He was just preparing to finish off the surprising young man when he felt a sharp pain.

He jumped away, putting his free hand to his side - it came away bloody. Facing him was the pink haired girl, a knife in one hand, a cell phone in the other.

"Ah? a Servant? So you're a Magus. that changes things some." smiled Lancer, "But maybe I should finish you off anyways, just so that you don't cause me trouble later." He fainted at the boy, before changing direction and stabbing at the girl.

But she was not taken by surprise. As soon as Lancer started his feint, she was charging where the Lancer would end up, so that his actual attack missed her. Lancer had to retreat to avoid getting knifed again.

Despite Lancer's greater skill and longer weapon, the two combatants were evenly matched. Both were incredibly fast, but the girl seemed to start dodging before Lancer even struck. And the wound in Lancer's side was deeper than it looked - it slowed him down a little.

"Arg!" Lancer growled "My cowardly Master demands that I retreat, so I will have to finish this fast"

"Gae Bolg!"

The spear flashed out for the girl's heart, but she was already dodging, but even her super human speed was not enough - the spear struck her in the shoulder. Lancer shook his head in annoyance as his master pulled on him again, "Another time" and leaped away.

"Are you ok?" Shirou ran over to the girl that had saved his life. But she stood up as if the injury didn't bother her, "Who are you?" She was tolerably pretty, dressed in a frilly pink sweater over what looked like a school uniform.

"I am Servant Assassin, and you are my master." She pronounced, before wobbling. Shirou darted in to catch her.

"I am?" He asked, confused "Here, let me take a look at that."

"Say the words!" She insisted sternly, refusing to let Shirou look at her arm.

"What?"

"Say 'I am your master'"

"Ok, I am your master" As Shirou pronounced the words, light flared on his arm as a command seal burnt itself into his skin. The young woman, Assassin, seemed to gain strength at the same time. She turned and stepped away from the over helpful teen with a scowl.

"Please return my cell phone to me."

"What cell phone?" asked Shirou.

Assassin pointed to Shirou's pocket.

"This?" he held out the cell phone that Ayako had asked him to check out. As Assassin snatched from his hand he asked, "But you already have a phone."

"That is my Master Diary. This is a ..." At that moment, Shirou felt somebody pass through the Bounded Field that acted as an intruder alarm around the property. Assassin must have felt it also, for she perked up like a hunting hound. She slipped her new phone into a pocket and darted out of the building, knife in hand.

"Oh, shit, what now?" Shirou ran after her. He just made it out of front gate when he saw the pink haired assassin streaking towards Rin Tohsaka, the school idol. Assassin's approach was so fast and unexpected, that Rin wasn't able to formulate a response - she was just starting to say something as Assassin raised her knife.

"STOP! Don't hurt her!" Shirou yelled. There was a tingling in his arm, and Assassin was yanked backwards, away from her intended prey. Shirou didn't notice, but part of the command seal faded away.

At the same time, a large man dressed in red armor materialized at Rin's side.

"So, you're a Master also, Emya-kun." Rin finally stated, to cover her confusion.

"A master? of what?" Shirou was completely out of his depth. He knew that his knowledge of magic was fairly minimal, but now it sounded that there was a whole world out there that he had been living on the edge of, without ever realizing it.

Assassin just rolled her eyes and watched the other servant cautiously.

Rin sighed. So Shirou actually WAS a dufus, and Rin would have to explain everything. All was right in the world. "Let's go inside and I will explain"

As the foursome sat in the dining room, drinking tea and eating leftover cake that Fujimura hadn't yet decimated, Rin explained the Heavens' Feel Ritual aka the Holy Grail war, while the man in red watched with a sardonic smile. Assassin helped set the table, to all appearances a completely normal school girl.

Shirou compared the two girls sharing the dining room with him (He was a teenage boy - he couldn't help it). _'Man, Issei is right - Rin really is annoyingly bossy. How come nobody in school notices?'_ He glanced at Assassin for comparison, _'And she's just the opposite - she looks so girly and nice, but...'_ Shirou remembered the steel hiding inside the girl. But there was something else... despite her bossiness, Rin felt more human than Assassin. More real. Assassin seemed fake, somehow.

A snort of amusement drew his gaze away from the girls. The red robed Servant was leaning against a wall, looking on arrogantly. _'That guy thinks he can handle anything the world throws at him. Maybe he can'_. Shirou thought, unconsciously trying to emulate the man's posture.

It soon became clear that while Shirou was technically a magus, he didn't know a single spell. Rin hid her horror at Shirou's lack of education, and concentrated on explaining the situation that they were in.

"So your Servant is a Hero from the past?" asked Shirou, "as was that man in blue?"

"Yes. Obviously, knowing the identity of the Servant will be a huge advantage, as it will let you know what skills and Noble Phantasms they have, so they are typically referred to by their class. My Servant" at this point Rin puffed up in pride. Shirou quickly avoided looking at what that did to her chest "My Servant is class Saber - the most powerful that there is. Combined with my own prodigious skill as a Magus, we are sure to win."

Saber smirked at his master's antics, though inside, his mind was awhirl with puzzlement, '_this in not right. This isn't part of the deal.'_ He scowled, '_this must be an alternate reality. So I get screwed again. Typical.'_

Shirou scratched his head and turned to the pink haired girl, who was nibbling on the cake while periodically glancing at her phone (and ignoring everybody else) '_Man, she has lousy social skills' _"ah, Assassin, you haven't told me who you are."

Rin face faulted as Shirou blithely ignored the implied warning she had just given him, "NO, you idiot! We are opponents! you shouldn't be revealing such thing with me here!"

"I don't plan to fight you, Tohsaka-san. If I get involved with this thing, it will only be to keep innocent people safe." Shirou smiled at the girl, "And you aren't the sort to hurt people."

"It doesn't matter what you plan. You can't know what the future holds. As a matter of policy, you should never give anybody an advantage over you. That's the first rule of being a magus"

"But if you never open up to people, how can you be friends with people"

"That's what I am trying to tell you! Magi don't have friends!"

Saber watched the argument with a sardonic smirk on his face

Before the argument could escalate further, Assassin glanced at her cell phone and replied, "Please call me Yuno. Assassin makes me sound like I am evil or something" She smiled cutely.

Rin face palmed '_oh, god. they're both idiots_' at the same time, she sent a silent query to her Servant, '_Saber, have you heard of any heroines with that name?'_

'_No, none that would fit her description,_' came the reply, '_the only Yuno I have heard of is the Roman mother goddess, but this girl is too young, and beside, I have a heard time seeing a matronly __assassin'_

Rin scowled,_ 'So another nameless Servant'_

At that comment, Saber's eyebrow quirked upwards, as his mind went into overdrive.

"You are hopeless. I should take you to the overseer for this Holy Grail war. He might be able to talk some sense into you."

"Ok, let's go" Shirou started to stand up.

"Don't be stupid." Yuno said with a smile, "Servants are active at night, and I can't have someone like you walking around. We will go during the daytime, tomorrow."

"What do you mean, someone like me?" Shirou bristled.

Yuno daintlilly brushed a crumb off her face, "I mean somebody who obviously has no magical skill. You need a servant to keep you safe, and I don't see why I have to make my job harder than it has to be."

Rin founded herself agreeing with the younger girl, _'Maybe she's not a complete idiot'_

At the same time, Saber was getting annoyed, _'First, I get dumped into an alternate reality, and next we have this supercilious little Servant. She thinks she's so much smarter than everybody else_' Saber was oblivious that, in many ways, that description fit him as well.

"Fine" groused Shirou, "We can go after school."

Saber expected Yuno to complain that going to school wasn't safe, but she didn't say anything, instead helping herself to another piece of the cake.'

"In that case, I will meet you at the Starbucks outside of school, and I will walk you over to the overseer"

"Thank you for helping me, Tohsaka-San" Shirou replied earnestly.

"I'm... I'm only doing it because I owe you a favor, for stopping Assassin from attacking me" Rin turned away so that Shirou wouldn't see the faint blush coloring her cheeks. "Well, we should get going - it's almost dinner time"

"Do you want to stay for dinner?" Shirou asked.

"No..No.. I couldn't impose like that" Rin replied in her 'School Idol' persona.

"Oh, it's no effort. I like to cook, and making food for two extra people is no problem."

Rin sighed, "Shirou - get this through your skull - I am your enemy." Yuno nodded agreement.

"Maybe after tomorrow, but right now you aren't" replied Shirou, "And I often cook for Sakura and Fujimura-san."

_'cook for Sakura?'_ "Is Matou-chan going to be here this evening?" Asked Rin cautiously.

"No, she usually comes by in the mornings to walk to school with me. Her brother used to as well, but he's gotten kind of aloof this year" Shirou was puzzled at the question.

_'So he's Sakura's friend'_ Curiosity nibbled at Rin. What sort of life did her estranged sister lead? Rin was a proper Magus, and would never dream of intruding on her by asking, but she still wanted to know. "Ok, We'll stay. But you should know - Servants don't eat"

As Shirou went into the kitchen, Yuno trailed after, "If you don't mind, I'll help out. I am a pretty good cook." She was pleasantly surprised to see how clean and orderly the kitchen was_ 'maybe I won't have to rescue dinner after all'._

The two teens concentrated on their cooking, and conversation was limited to that. Soon, an exasperated Rin made her way into the kitchen as well, "You know, I am complete unsupervised here. I could wander around and spy out all your secrets"

"Go, ahead" replied Shirou over his shoulder, "Can you chop some cabbage?" this was to Yuno, who nodded and immediately grabbed a knife. "I don't have any secrets. My workshop is in the building to the side."

Rin gave a horrified look to Saber.

'_This is very.. odd. But it's kind of fun._' Yuno had never cooked with another person. '_Shirou is so girly - Yuki would never cook like this.' _

Later, when the food was served, Rin cautiously tried some "This is good!" her face lit up. Yuno quirked an eyebrow and reached for a serving dish as well. Soon the two girls were racing to see who could eat more. "This is professional quality - you should be a chef!" Rin gushed.

"It's not proper for a man to cook. It is a wife's job to cook for her husband" Yuno objected around a mouth full of rice. "When I am married, I will cook all sorts of special meals for Yuki" she gushed. The combination of good food and friendly conversation had softened her aloof demeanor. It had been so long - so many years - since she had talked to people.

Rin and Saber shared a glance, "Who is Yuki?"

"He is going to be my husband." Yuno finished off a strip of meat, "That is my wish - to be reunited with my Yuki!" She beamed at the others present.

"Uhm, ok." Rin replied.

"He must be a very special person." Shirou brought out another serving platter. '_Servants don't eat yeah, right'_ It was a good thing he was used to making extra for Fuji-nee, otherwise they wouldn't have had enough.

"Yes, Yuki is the most important thing in my life. He give it meaning!"

_'uhm, Saber - does she not realize that she's dead?'_ Rin looked on in bemusement at the other girl.

Saber just shrugged and reached for the soy sauce.

FSD*FSD

Later that night, once Rin and her Servant had left for home, Shirou made up one of the guest rooms for Yuno to use, and went to bed.

Yuno, on the other hand, lay awake, waiting until she was certain that her master was asleep, which was easy to do, with her Master Diary. It not only told her what Shirou was doing right now, it also showed her what he would see and do in the next few minutes (or sometimes longer).

While she waited, she pulled out her 'True Love Diary'

July 28 - HAPPY END -

Yuki and Yuno become one

_'Yuki'_. Yuno needed to know. As soon as Shirou was asleep, she quietly stood up and slipped out of the room. She made her way to the out building, to Shirou's workshop. She smiled - there WAS a computer in there! She quickly booted it up and started a people search for 'Yukiteru Amano, resident of Sakurami city'. But there is no such person. Even the city didn't exist. Yuno becomes more and more panicky, before taking a deep breath _'well, so much for Plan A. I guess I'll have to go with Plan B_'. Plan A had been murdering Shirou in his sleep and making Yuki her new master.

That night, Shirou dreamed of floating in empty blackness. The image was accompanied by a feeling of crushing loneliness and gnawing fear. He didn't sleep very well.


	3. Chapter 3

for those that read the plot bunny I posted a while ago, this is the beginning of the new stuff.

Chapter start

"Are you certain that you will be safe at school?" Yuno asked. She was helping Shirou cook breakfast, '_Why do we need so much food?_' She whisked up some eggs.

"Yes. You said it yourself - servants don't fight during the day. The risk of being seen is too high." Shirou put the last dish on the stove, "Besides, why are you so worried today? Yesterday you were fine with it."

Yuno smiled sweetly '_yesterday, you were a backup plan' _"I'm not worried. I just want to make sure that you don't forget to be careful. I can't disincorporate, so I won't be able to accompany you"

For some reason, the hairs on the back of Shirou's neck prickled when she smiled. "Uhm yeah. Speaking of being careful - you said you had a way of explaining why you're here?"

"Yes - I was going to..." Yuno was interrupted by the front door slamming open

"Shirou! feed me!" came the roar of the tiger, followed by a quieter "good morning Sempai. do you need any help?"

"Now would be a good time." said Shirou, grabbing a serving bowl of Miso soup and heading out to the dining room.

"Good morning, Fuji-nee, Sakura." Shirou set the soup onto the table, I would like you to meet..."

"Who is that?" demanded Fujimura suspiciously., as Yuno came into the dining room as well.

"And why was she in the kitchen?" asked Sakura in a hurt tone.

"That's Yuno, my daughter" came the reply from the doorway leading to the guest rooms. In it stood a corpulent, dark skinned woman with white hair. "I am Gasai-san". She stopped at the table to grab a roll. "Emya-san was an associate of mine, and I stopped by to pay my respects." she shoved the roll into her mouth and chewed noisily. "I am saddened at his passing." she then lumbered out the front door.

"Uh.." Fujimura and Sakura were obviously stunned by the gross woman, "where is she going?"

"Probably to pay her respects at father's grave" replied Shirou, improvising quickly.

"Oh" Fujimura turned to the strange girl, '_huh, she must be adopted'_ "so, will you be staying long?"

"We had planned to stay for a week - my mother has some business in town to conduct as well, so Shirou was kind enough to invite us to stay here."

"But aren't you missing school?" Asked Sakura. '_with a mother like that, she's going to be fat by the time she's 16'_ she thought with some relief.

"Oh, I go to a private school - our schedule is a little different"

The rest of the meal passed peacefully, with the four people enjoying the good food. Shirou, though was on tenterhooks - who or what had that woman been?

"Oh, sempai, let me help you clear the table" Sakura decided that since she didn't get a chance to cook with Shirou, this was the best she could do. It was what married people did. Working with Shirou in the kitchen made her feel like they were a couple.

Fujimura of course ran on ahead, as she had to be at school before the students, and Yuno retreated to her room.

As Shirou and Sakura were about to set out for school as well, he stopped, "Shoot - I forgot to pack my homework. I'll be right back" and ran back into the house and over to the guest room, "Yuno?" he knocked. "Who was that woman?"

"That was Murmur." replied Yuno, looking up from her phone, "She's my helper. She's usually quite useful, but because we are so low on prana, I don't know how much she can do."

"oh, ok. See you later then." and Shirou ran back out

'_What a dork' _Yuno lay back on the bed. "Murmur - go back to being small and see if you can find any other masters. Avoid the servant's - they seem dangerous" she texted to her familiar.

"Yeah, yeah. teach your grandmother to suck eggs" came the reply.

FSD-FSD

Shirou was just walking through the school gate when he felt like all the air was sucked out of his lungs. '_What the hell was that?' _He staggered a few steps before righting himself, '_I'll ask Tohsaka this afternoon. She will know.'_

FSD*FSD

At lunchtime, Rin was up on the roof, contemplating. "Things are getting too complicated. I have to lead the idiot to Kotomine church, then I have to get back to school and figure out who's setting up this bounded field and how to disassemble it. And after that I have to deal with the rest of the Masters in this war."

"Why not skip step one?" Saber's voice came an empty patch of air, as he was currently incorporeal. It would have been kind of weird, but since Rin was the only one who could hear him, it was fine - the only odd thing was that she appeared to be talking to herself. "Just kill Emya. That will save on travel time and simplify your to-do chart at the same time."

"Arg. I can't do that. I promised to take him to the church. Besides, it wouldn't be fair." Rin prevaricated. The fact that Emya seemed like a very nice guy had nothing to do with it. At all.

"Since when has 'fair' factored into the Grail war?" Saber asked, "We are here to win."

Rin, surprisingly, had little experience with peer pressure, so she buckled "Fine, fine. I'll take care of the idiot. but I'm not killing him."

FSD*FSD

By the time the school day was over, Shirou was more than ready to get going. Not only had class been tedious, but the something in the air was making him nauseous. Plus, he was anxious about getting involved with the magical community. His father had never said anything bad about them (honestly, had hadn't said much of ANYTHING about them), but the impression that Shirou had picked up was that they were very strict and demanding.

Shirou was just packing up his books when he got a text message: "Rin is going to kill you in about 5 minutes. run -Yuno" He looked up in confusion - Rin was nowhere in sight, and almost all of the other students had also cleared out - Shirou had had clean up duty (he volunteered for it at least twice a week), so he was running a little late. Shirou shrugged off the message as Yuno being an alarmist. He put the bucket away and glanced at the clock. '_Shoot - I was supposed to meet with Tohsaka 15 minutes ago - she's going to kill me!'._

Shirou grabbed his book bag and had just stepped out the classroom door when a voice called out from the stairwell opposite "Are you the last one out, as usual?" It was Rin, but her tone of voice was oddly hesitant.

"Oh, hi, Rin! I am so sorry for making you wait, especially since you are being so kind as to help me learn the ropes." Shirou smiled, "You're a good person."

"I.. I.." Rin looked away from Shirou, "Come, on, you idiot. I'll show you to the overseer. But then you are fair game, got it?" She had started out speaking softly, but by the end she was almost yelling in Shirou's face.

"Um, ok?"

'_Wimp'_ a quiet voice whispered in Rin's mind.

'_I made a promise! And Tohsakas don't not break their promises!'_ Rin countered.

As they walked out of the school, Shirou breathed a sigh of relief, "thank goodness - something in there stank!"

Rin quirked an eyebrow, "You felt that?"

Shirou nodded

"It's a bounded field. somebody, probably one of the other masters, set it up around the whole school. It's still charging up, so it's pretty weak. I am surprised that a no-talent magus like you could detect it."Rin lectured with a mixture of condescension and praise.

"What does it do? Is it dangerous?" Shirou ignored the mild insult. Little things like insults (or pain) didn't distract him from his purpose.

"Probably. It looks like a draining field, to suck life energy from the students. I figure a Master set it up to charge up their Servant faster." Rin Frowned, "I'm going to have to take it down after I'm done with you"

Shirou nodded emphatically, "You can't let something like that kill students."

"I doubt the Master was stupid enough to set it so high that it will kill people" Rin scowled at Shirou's naiveté, "but I can't let whoever set it up get such an advantage."

As the two walked down the street, Yuno stepped out from behind a bus stop to join them. She stared intently at Rin for a moment, as if deciding where the best place would be to stick a knife before her face cleared, "Oh, hello. Nice to see you"

"Is it going to be a long walk?" asked Shirou.

"The Church is on the edge of town - it's a half hour walk." Rin replied in annoyance '_is he going to wimp out on me?'_

Shirou nodded, "in that case..." He walked up to a street cart and purchased three ice cream cones, "On a hot day like today, this will help keep you cool" He handed one to each of the two girls.

The two girls exchanged surprised looks, but well, it was ice cream, so they took it.

As the trio walked along, eating their ice cream, a silent voice pronounced sardonically, '_You know, you look like you're on a date.'_

Rin almost choked on her ice cream "AM NOT!"

"Excuse me?" asked Shirou. Yuno looked down at her Master Diary.

Rin glanced around quickly, to check if any of her classmates were within sight. Thankfully, the street was clear of teenagers, "Nothing, it's nothing. Saber just made an inappropriate joke."

As they walked, Shirou tried to make conversation with the two girls, but Rin just scowled at him, and Yuno smiled and nodded, but kept her eyes on her cell phone.

When they reached Kotomine Church, Yuno frowned, "I will wait outside". The church was located on a quiet residential street, but with the nice weather, there were a number of people bicycling or walking in the area, so Yuno would not look out of place sitting at the bus stop bench outside the church.

Rin lead the fake janitor into the cool of the small building, "Kirei, you in here?"

"What is it that you require, child?" came the phlegmatic reply. A tall man strode out from the shadows. He was trying to appear serene, but to Shirou he just came across as arrogant.

"This is Shirou Emya. He is a master in the Grail war." Rin pushed Shirou forwards.

"Ah, Hello, sir. Tohsaka says I need to inform you if I am going to compete in this war."

"Hmm. And do you plan to do so?' asked the the priest, being overly proper. He lead the two teenagers to a nook off to one side, which served as his office, complete with a desk and several chairs.

"Yes" Shirou nodded forcefully.

"So you have a wish that is worth fighting for? Maybe even dying for?" asked Kirei, curious about what motivated the young man. Motivations fascinated him, maybe because he wanted to convince himself that his own was not so aberrant.

"No. But Tohsaka-san has explained to me the lengths some of the other masters will go to to win, and so I will join this absurd contest in order to can keep people safe." His eyes burned with a passion that seldom showed on his face, "There is no justification for hurting people just for your selfish reasons."

"So the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one, hmm?" smirked Kirei as he took a seat.

"Is that a Christian thing?" asked Shirou.

"No, Star Trek" replied the priest. "Very well. I will record you as the seventh master. The contest begin in earnest now. Go, and try not to die right away" Kotomine smirked '_a prolonged death is more amusing, after all' _This last part Kirei kept to himself.

As the two teens exited the church, Shirou whispered to Rin, "that guy is creepy."

"Tell me about it" Rin muttered back. Kirei had technically been her guardian for the past 10 years, but all he really cared about was that she didn't neglect her education.

As they walked back out into the sunlight, Shirou saw Yuno quickly slip a cell phone into her pocket with a guilty look. "All done?" she asked easily.

Shirou was about to answer when a child's voice called out, "so you are contestant as well, Oni-san." it was the silver haired preteen girl that he had seen a couple of days ago. "But it doesn't matter - you won't last long." she smiled.

Shirou caught a glimpse of Yuno as she blurred into action. She had her knife raised, and murder in her eye

He just had time to throw himself in her way. As she collided with him, her knife ripped a gash in his shoulder.

"What are you doing!" she demanded.

"Are you insane? You can't just attack people like that" Shirou almost yelled as he staggered up, holding his arm. "She's just a little girl!"

Illya looked on in bemusement, "Oni-san is correct. you shouldn't do anything with so many witnesses around. Otherwise, my Berserker would have come out and smashed you into a thin pink paste" she giggled. "He's Hercules, the mightiest hero."

The pink haired girl glared at her opponent for a moment before a bicyclist rode by, giving the teens an incurious glance. "You're right, Shirou-sama!" she said in a perky tone, visibly relaxing.

Rin stood in the background, watching. "he's a complete idiot"

'_Yes, but that servant of his... there is something wrong with her. It's like she's two different people.' _Saber said quietly, not at all happy with the way things were going.

'_So she hides her competence behind a saccharine sweet persona. There's nothing wrong with that'_ replied Rin. Though personally, she preferred a more aloof mask to hide behind.

Yuno stood there watching Illya, Illya stood watching Yuno. Both were smiling. Despite being physically smaller, Ilya somehow managed to look like the more mature of the two. Neither seemed inclined to move. "So, how was your trip to Japan? not too unpleasant I hope?" Yuno fingered the knife she was holding behind her back.

"Oh, it was fine. I expect it will be a rewarding trip" Ilya eyed Shirou speculatively.

"Ah" Shirou scratched the back of his head before stepping forward, "My name is Shirou Emya. Nice to meet you.." he trailed off

"Illyasviel von Einzbern" she was just about to say something else when Yuno grabbed Shirou by his wounded arm and pulled him away, "Don't talk to the enemy, Master."

As Shirou floundered, Illya waved good by, "you are an interesting person, Oni-san"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter

Once Yuno had dragged Shirou a couple of blocks away from his confrontation with Illya, she pulled him into a small alley between a pair of three story tenement houses. "let me take a look at that arm, Shirou-kun" she gently prodded at his shoulder

"It's ok - I am a fast healer" Shirou protested, looking at Rin for assistance.

"Let her check it out, idiot. If you don't take care of minor injuries, you can tear something, and then you'll have to go to the hospital." Rin added in exasperation.

"Fine", Shirou sighed, undoing his shirt.

"Hmm" Yuno took a look at his shoulder "it's not too bad" she said, prodding his back some more.

"Um, in that case, can I put my shirt back on?" Shirou asked trying to glance over his shoulder to see what the pink haired weirdo was doing.

"Yeah. Go ahead" Yuno took a step back, "You're in pretty good shape." she added.

Shirou shrugged, embarrassed, "I guess." He saw no need to mention that when he had been part of the archery team, his daily regimen had including lifting weights in the morning and firing two hundred arrows with an 85 pound draw bow in the afternoon, and since then he still worked a lot with his hands, helping out at the restaurant and around the school.

"Ok, let's go" Rin said, pretending she hadn't been looking at Shirou's chest.

"We need a jacket or something, to cover the blood stains" insisted Yuno.

"Right, right. Give me a moment" Rin began an Aria. Soon, a spiral of blue light encircled her. In the daylight, it was barely visible, but it appeared to be made up of glowing letters. She then reached out and touched Shirou's arm. the blue drained from the air, seeping into the shirt and staining it a bright red, a shade very similar to Saber's half-coat. "That should hide it."

"Is this permanent?" Asked Shirou, incensed.

"Of course it is", replied Rin "You think I would do a half assed job?"

"But I don't like red." Shirou whined.

"Well, that's what you get. Or if you don't like blood red, I could make it shit brown!" Rin was radiating annoyance.

Yuno tittered, despite herself, at Rin's swearing.

Shirou glanced at Rin to see if she was serious. To prove her point, Rin bent down and scooped up a handful of mud and then quirked an eyebrow inquisitively.

"Ah, no. Red is fine. I like red."

"Good"

The group was half way to the Emya Residence when Tohsaka reluctantly said, "and here is where we part ways. Remember, next time I see you, you're a target."

Shirou stopped and turned around, "But we still need to talk about how we will take down the bounded field at school."

Rin waved the objection away, "I can do that on my own."

"Yes, let her do that on her own" seconded Yuno.

"But what if you can't? You said you're not certain how powerful the field is - what if somebody gets hurt? I would like to help."

"And do what? As a magus, you suck." replied Yuno.

"Well, I don't know, but I can make us some dinner and we can talk about it."

Rin paused. Shirou.. make dinner... Hmm.. "can you make the same stuff as last night?"

"Sure, though I was thinking of cooking western tonight."

"No, you will make the same as yesterday." Rin replied imperiously before continuing on towards Emya's house. "Coming?"

Yuno's eyes narrowed in thought. as they did, a buzzing sound came from her cell phone. she flipped it open and sighed, '_so poisoning her won't work. Not until I dispose of Saber'_

FSD*FSD

Shirou was hard at work in the kitchen, as Fujimura chatted with the girls. "So, Yuno - tell me about yourself. Do you have a boyfriend back home?"

"Oh, yes - Yukiteru Amano. We're going to be married" Yuno gushed, sounding slightly vapid.

"So tell me about him" asked Rin, curious despite herself.

"Well" Yuno continued to smile despite the panic that started to well up within her - she couldn't remember what Yuki looked like! Or almost anything else about him. "He is tall (at least for a Japanese man) and well muscled, even though he claims that he never worked out. He's very nice, though he needs somebody to take care of him."

"Sounds a little like our Shirou - he's always helping people, to the point that he forgets to look after himself." At this point, Shirou brought out the first set of serving dishes. As Fujimura heaped food on her plate, she continued, "did you know that he wanted to be a superhero?'

As the Rin giggled, Yuno scowled at Shirou, "that's stupid. You need to look after your own interests first. Nobody else will". Yuno faintly recalled that she didn't used to speak her mind, but her her long (centuries? decades?) long stay in Akasha had eroded some of her social rules.

Saber, who was hovering incorporeally over Rin's shoulder, narrowed his eyes. Not that he didn't agree that Shirou was an idiot, but in terms of altruism, this Yuno was a bit too far in the opposite direction.

"If you don't do something useful with your life, then what's the point of living?" Shirou retorted angrily, "I said the superhero thing when I was a kid, but I stand by my statement that if you aren't helping people, that if all you do is just float through life, that your life is worthless."

'_That's something new. So if you're helping people, then your life has worth?_' Saber watched his alternate.

"Hmm" Rin finished chewing a morsel and added, "what about Yuki? Is helping him ok?"

Yuno's face changed from scowling to radiant in a moment, "Oh, that's different. He's going to be my husband after all. His love gives my life meaning, so I would do anything to keep him safe." She gushed, "If anybody tried to hurt him..." Her scowl returned and her knife slammed down forcefully into an egg roll, squirting food across her plate.

Fujimura took a bite of rice, '_that girl isn't playing with a full deck. Good thing she's only going to be __here for a week_' "So, Yuno, when is your mother coming back?"

"Oh, sometime. She has her own business to attend to."

"Well, I'll just hang out with you guys until she gets back."

As dinner wound to a close, Fujimura again asked, "so, you want to call you mother and find out what her ETA is? It is not appropriate for boys and girls your age to be under one roof without supervision."

Rin sighed. As she turned to Fujimura, her eyes glowed red, "Why don't you take a nap. You can wake up in the morning"

Taiga nodded, "Why don't I take a nap. I'll wake up in the morning" She stood up from the table and made her way to the living room couch.

As the teacher started to snore, Rin wiped her mouth "no need to thank me."

"Can you show me how to do that?" asked Shirou in surprise, "My magecraft is pretty limited."

"What can you do?" asked Rin.

"I can trace stuff." At Rin's puzzled frown, he explained, "I can get a detailed map of something, and use my magic to repair or enhance it. Here, I can show you"

He stood up and lead the two women out to his workshop. "see, I have been practicing here" The workshop was littered with broken radios, a motor and several vacuum cleaners, as well as several objects that had started life as made from wood, but now gleamed as if steel. "I've mostly had to teach myself. My dad didn't want to train me in magic."

Rin shook her head. She didn't know if she should be amused or horrified, "This is pathetic. I don't understand why any Magus worthy of the name wouldn't do a better job of passing on his skills"

Shirou shrugged, disappointed at Rin's response, "He said that Magic just brought sadness. But I think he was just was sad that he couldn't accomplish his goals. Come back in, I'll serve dessert"

"No, thank you. If I eat another bite, I'll get fat" Rin bowed to her host "Thank you for the dinner. Remember, tomorrow I will try my best to kill you."

As she walked out, Yuno turned to Shirou, "I can follow her home. I bet she's going to send her Servant out to hunt for other Master's hideouts.. I can kill her then."

"Yuno," Shirou sighed, "didn't you hear what I said - I'm in this war to save people, not kill them."

"You actually mean that nonsense? I thought you just said that to put Tohsaka off her guard."

"Of course I meant it! Who cares about winning this stupid grail war."

"I do" Yuno hissed, "After I win, I will be reunited with my Yuki."

"Ok, fine. but if in order to win, you end up having to kill a bunch of people, would you still be happy winning it?"

"Yes" Yuno replied simply.

Shirou just stared at her.

"How about we compromise: I will do my best to win the Grail war, but we won't kill anybody."

"That's the same as losing the war." Yuno replied angrily, '_If only I could just get a better master...'_

"And killing people is the same as losing your humanity. You may think that winning at any cost will bring you happiness, but I think that in the end pursuing your ideal at any cost will just make you more sad and unhappy."

"Maybe you're right" Yuno smiled, "I'll think about it" '_I wonder how long I can remain in this world if I kill him... best find a good master first.'_

Yuno helped Shirou clear the table and wash the dishes. Yuno washed, Shirou dried and stacked. It was a soothing routine, and soon the Grail War seemed like a distant problem

"Oh, It's good that you are so tall," Yuno mentioned as Shirou put a stack of dishes on the top shelf, "I can't really use the highest shelf in my house."

"Oh,? what sort of house did you live in?" Shirou asked, making casual conversation.

"Actually, it's a traditional place, like yours, except the grounds are better maintained. My parents have a beautiful garden in the center."

"Hmm. My foster father bought this place. I think he was trying to escape from the stress of the modern world. He was dying, you see, and he wanted to spend his final years in peace."

"Ah, so that is why you live here alone." Yuno mused.

As the two split off to go to their own rooms, Yuno called out, "tomorrow, I make dinner"

That night, Shirou again dreamed of loneliness, but this time, there were bodies everywhere, and everything was splattered with blood.

FSD*FSD

At breakfast the following morning, Sakura insisted on cooking a western meal with Shirou. And she insisted that Yuno sit quietly out in the dining room with Fujimura and the imposing bulk of Murmur masquerading as Yuno's mother.

"I can't believe that I fell asleep like that last night" Taiga groused, "I must be really out of shape."

"Hmm. I know how you feel. I was very surprised to see how large I have become" Murmur said as she reached for the coffee. Yuno spread some butter on a piece of toast and handed it to Taiga, before serving Murmur and the rest.

'_Hmm. She's so polite. why did I think she was a weirdo yesterday?'_ Taiga shrugged and ate her toast.

After the usual morning routine, Shirou and Sakura headed for school (and Yuno followed a few minutes later, to hang out at the Starbucks down the street, in case Shirou needed rescuing). "So, how is it having Gasai-san and Gasai-chan staying at your house? I know you have gotten used to living on your own."

"It's not too bad. Gasai-san is out most of the day, so I rarely see her, and Yuno tries hard to be polite. But she's a little... odd."

"She hasn't tried to do anything inappropriate?" Sakura's eyes narrowed, though her tone of voice stayed gentle as always.

"No, no!' Shirou waived away her concern, "She has a boyfriend back home" '_Or something'._

"Ah" Sakura smiled, "I am glad to hear that - having somebody you care about is important. Very important" she glanced at Shirou to see if he caught her subtle hint. But he was Shirou, who didn't think it at all odd that the majority of his friends were attractive girls. So no, he was still oblivious. Sakura blushed "Ah, well, I have to turn off here. I'll see you tomorrow Sempai"

As Shirou entered the school grounds, he was again assaulted by the noxious smell. This time it was strong enough to make his stomach churn.

Shirou was barely able to pay attention during school. He got used to the smell over time, but periodically, it wafted stronger, distracting him from his classes. '_I need to talk to Rin about this - If I'm smelling that boundary field or whatever, it's getting much stronger.'_

FSD*FSD

After the last bell rang, Shirou packed up and set out to find the school Idol. Rin wasn't in her homeroom, so he set off to search her likely haunts - the roof, any classrooms where after-school clubs met, etc. '_I should have gotten Tohsaka's phone number. That would have made this so much easier.'_

He was just heading towards the stairs leading down from the fourth floor when his phone rang "Hello?"

"Shirou - Tohsaka is going to try to kill you in about a minute. RUN" It was Yuno's voice. She sounded like she was running.

Shirou sighed, "You said the same thing yesterday. You shouldn't be so mistrustful. Tohsaka is a nice person" As he hung up, he exited the stairs onto the 3rd floor to see Rin waiting in the empty hallway. "Oh, Hi, Rin, I have a question for you."

Rin looked torn for a moment. Biting her lip, she raised her hand and pronounced "gandr". A ball of black energy shot out of her fingers at Shirou

"What the?!" he ducked back into the stairwell.

"I told you, Emya-kun. Today, we are enemies" another black ball shot at Shirou and he started to run up the stairs. Rin sprayed two more gandr shot at him and then followed up the stairs.

Shirou ran down the corridor and slammed into the first available classroom. Thinking quickly, he slammed the door shut and jammed a chair under the door handle. '_Oh, god, she's trying to kill me!' _Shirou glanced around for any weapon. There was a pole for opening and closing the window shade. He grabbed that and hid behind an overturned desk.

The odd thing about this battle was how quiet it was. The gandr shot made a quiet hissing sound as it flew through the air, but that was all.

The door rattled, but did not open.

"Trace on" pain, like a needle being forced down his spine coursed through Shirou. He called on his magic and used it to reinforce first the desk and then the rod.

"Shirou, I just want your command seals. I'm not going to kill you. If you come out, I take them peacefully, otherwise I will have to hurt you, and then cut off your arm. But that's still better than dying, which is what will happen to you if an incompetent like you continues in the Holy Grail War." a spray of gandr shot hit the door, and the door warped and twisted, until it popped off its hinges and fell into the room.

More black spheres splashed against the reinforced desk, making it shake and warp. Shirou ducked down and clutched his makeshift weapon, getting ready to dart out and do... something.

His cellphone buzzed with an incoming text message 'Shinji's lying - Yuno'. Shirou was confused. Tohsaka was the problem, Shinji was nowhere around.

"Surrender your command seals, Emya. It's for the best" Rin prepared a barrage of gander shot that would be strong enough to destroy the desk. They would probably do some serious harm to Shirou as well, but he would survive, and in a few weeks, with some medical care, he would be back to normal. She refused to dwell on the image of herself nursing him back to health that popped into her mind.

Just as she was about to release the barrage, three streaks of putrescent black energy slammed into her, knocking her into the wall. She collapsed, disoriented, and began vomiting.

Shirou got up, holding his metalized rod like a sword "Tohsaka?" he approached slowly. Before he reached the incapacitated Rin, Shinji Matou stepped into view.

"Hey, Shirou. Guess who saved your ass?" He smirked.

"Shinji? You're a magus?"

The smirk slipped off his face, "Well, I'm a Master in this war" he struck a pose. "Seriously, with the sort of Masters competing in this war, the two of us need to team up if we have any hope of winning"

"What?" Shirou, "You know who else is a Master?" '_Maybe he knows something about the bounded field around the school'_

"Well, there's Tohsaka, who's one of the most powerful magi in the country, plus there's whoever is operating out of Ryudo Temple" Shinji shrugged nonchalantly, attempting to appear knowledgeable and suave. Like James Bond.

Rin started to push herself up. Shinji quickly held up a book that Shirou hadn't seen him holding and threw purplish-black something from it at Rin. She slumped back down to the ground, looking dazed. Shinji looked very pleased. His gaze wandered over her prone body for several moments.

"What are you going to do to Tohsaka."

"Nothing. I'm not going to hurt her." Shinji replied, but something in his voice was off. Shirou recalled Yuno's text message, '_She was right about Tohsaka attacking me'_. He stepped over to the prone Rin, and held his rod defensively.

"I'll think about it. But I think you should leave now. I'll take care of Tohsaka."

Shinji quirked an eyebrow before smirking oddly, "are you certain you don't want some help 'handling' her?"

"My servant is on her way. I'll be fine" Shirou still kept a wary stance.

Shinji stood for a moment, clearly debating what to do, before sighing, "Just don't forget - us second raters need to work together." He turned and walked off.

Shirou crouched down to help Rin sit up. At the same time, Saber materialized, a falchion in his hand "next time, we do it my way." He rumbled. He pulled back his arm to take off Shirou's head. Shirou stumbled back, falling on his rear end _'Yuno, Help! Come here!'_ He panicked. Unseen, the second of his command seals flared and faded from sight. At the same tome, Yuno materialized in front of Shirou, knife in hand.

Before Saber could attack, Rin wheezed out, "No.. not him. Shinji blind sided me"

Saber's eyes narrowed. He glanced at Shirou, then Rin, and back, "You take care of her. I'm going to going to take of Shinji"

"Don't kill him!" called out Shirou.

"I won't" lied Saber before dashing off.

"Help me up - I need to get the taste of that magic out of my mouth" Rin croaked. As Shirou helped her over to the water fountain, she added, "That was... nauseating." She rinsed out her mouth and then drank deeply.

Yuno watched as Shirou stood next to Rin, "We should kill her now" she pulled out a knife and approached the incapacitated magus.

"NO! What is wrong with you? We aren't killing anybody. We agreed on that last night!" As Shirou yelled at his servant, Rin stepped back and prepared a spell.

"No, you talked about it. I just listened and smiled" Yuno replied, exasperated, "because it's the stupidest idea I've ever heard. How are we going to win if we don't kill anybody?" The familiarity of the situation struck Yuno like a shock of of cold water. She suddenly had a vivid memory of Yuki insisting that they not hurt anybody in the future diary game. '_How dare he imitate my Yuki...'_. Anger started to boil, deep under the surface.

"We.. We don't have to kill anybody. Servants are already dead - they're just Spirits made flesh, so if we defeat them, they will just go back to Akasha. No harm done." Shirou stood, relief at having solved the conundrum obvious on his face.

Rin watched, bemused, '_the idiot is planning to have Assassin face off against Saber? He's not much of a threat.'_

Before Yuno could give Shirou a piece of her mind, Saber came back in, "I lost the little bastard. His Servant scooped him up and ran. Incidentally, it was a woman with purple hair and wearing a blindfold. She wasn't carrying any obvious weapons"

Before anybody else could say anything, Rin pronounced, "Shirou and I are going to work together for the time being" At the same time, she sent silently to Saber, '_Shirou want to only fight Servants. and with Assassin, he's no threat to us. And her abilities could be useful for finding other masters' hideouts'_

Saber nodded '_Are you certain? Shirou's an honorable sort, but Yuno is a loose cannon. I don't trust her' _Saber was very surprised to find himself defending this alter-Shirou.

'_I think it's worth the risk, for now' _Rin turned back to Shirou, "Ok, since we're all here, we might as well take a crack at taking down this bounded field." She stood up straighter, but she wasn't able to take her trademark lecturing pose, as she was still feeling a little queazy. "We need to find the anchor points for the bounded field. For one this big, there are going to be more than one. The best way to do that will be to split up."

"How will we get in touch? Do you have a cell phone?" Shirou asked.

"Of course," Rin proudly pulled out a little black rectangle about the length of a pack of gum, but twice as thick. She had bought it at the start of the school year. The sacrifices she made to maintain her 'school idol' persona. Though it _was_ a very cute phone, she had to admit.

"So, what can it do?" asked Yuno, curious.

"What do you mean? it's a phone," answered Rin.

"I mean can it go on the internet, or can it play mp3s, or does it have a diary feature?"

Rin started to go cross-eyed as Yuno used words that she wasn't familiar with. Her smile became wooden.

'_Since when does an ancient heroic spirit know about the internet?' _Asked Saber suspiciously

That gave Rin pause.

"Ah, does Saber have a cell phone?" asked Shirou.

"No, but I can contact Rin, and she'll phone you."

Shirou nodded, "In that case, let's get started" As they split up, he took another glance at Rin, to make sure she was ok.

FSD*FSD

Shirou founded it slightly odd - he was working together with Tohsaka, who less than an hour ago, had been trying to kill him. Well, maybe not kill, but seriously injure '_I guess that goes to show that with a little effort, you can find the good in anybody.' _He was currently on the roof, following a scent. Since the Bounded Field had a smell for him, he was literally sniffing around, trying to find the source of the smell, in the hope that it would lead him to the anchor. It was kind of like trying to find a dead mouse rotting somewhere in your home.

He rounded an air-conditioning unit and gagged. "Rin? I'm on the roof. I think I found one" he put his phone away and walked to the edge to get some fresh air.

FSD*FSD

"So how were you able to find it so fast?" Rin demanded suspiciously. Not that she suspected Shirou of being involved with creating this Bounded Field, but she didn't like being shown up. She was a talented Magus, and her detection spell could easily cover several dozen square meters, but somehow, Shirou managed to show her up. Though he still needed her help to blast the anchoring rune.

"Can't you smell it?" he asked. At Rin's puzzled look, he continued, "all magic has a smell for me, so I just followed my nose." He took a couple of sniffs, leading the way to a spot no different than any others, at least to the unaided eye.

Rin followed, bemused, '_maybe he sucks as a magus, but he makes a good bloodhound'_, "Ok, let's see what we got here" She quickly cast her detection spell, and a complex rune a foot across came into view. It was red colored, and looked to have been drawn with smeared blood.

Rin pronounced another aria, and a three foot tall tornado materialized over the rune, scouring it off the roof. "Ok, that's one. Lets go find the next. You sniff them out, and I will blast them".

As they set out, Shirou pausing and sniffing periodically, Rin smiled, '_Maybe I should get a leash and a dog collar.' _The image that popped into her head made her blush, but fortunately, she was walking a few steps behind Shirou, so he didn't see.

The two teens spent the rest of the afternoon like that, and they managed to remove another 5 runes.

"How many anchors does this bounded field have?" Rin was exasperated. Who ever had cast this field had done a very thorough job. Their work this afternoon had delayed the field, but there were still enough anchors in place so that the bounded field stayed up. "Ok, If we're going to work together, I should do something about making you less useless."

Shirou looked surprised, "and what does that mean?"

"I'll train you in magecraft. In exchange for dinner."

"Oh, that's fair. Thanks!" Shirou beamed.

FSD*FSD

"Ok, so let's see some magic" Rin was sitting next to Shirou in his workshop. They had decided to start work on his spell casting before dinner, as Shirou was eager to improve. Rin had cast a small monitoring spell on the incompetent Magus, so she could better see what he was doing wrong.

"Trace on!" Shirou convert a nerve into a Magic circuit and drew prana. He didn't hear Rin's sharp intake of breath. He then poured the prana into the rusty rod in front of him, converting the rust back into good steel.

"How was that?" he asked, holding up the shiny piece of metal.

"I can't believe you are doing something so stupid!" Rin almost yelled.

"What? I have been practicing this spell for years - it's what lets me repair stuff."

"Not that - I mean why on earth are you using your nerves as magic circuits? One screw up and you will fry your brain. And it must hurt like hell!"

"Um yeah, it hurts a little,but it's no big deal, " '_not like the Fire',_ "How else would I get prana?"

"You have functional Magic circuits. Not many, but enough for basic spells."

"Really? How do I find them?"

Rin rolled her eyes. "Here, I'm going to prime them. That will let you sense them" She put her hands on either side of Shirou's head and sent a jolt of energy into him. "Feel that? Now use THOSE when you cast a spell, instead of playing Russian Roulette with your nerves."

"Ok!" Shirou promptly reached out for another piece of scrap - an old rag "Trace On!" The rag stiffened and gained the consistency of steel. The edges started to disintegrate, though "Wow! I think I overloaded it. That was so much easier"

"Idiot," Rin smiled affectionately, "Why don't you go start dinner - I want my payment."

"Don't worry - Yuno volunteered to cook dinner tonight."

Rin sweat dropped, '_Shit - she's going to try to poison me.'_

Dinner was a tense affair, as Rin made sure to only eat from dishes that Shirou had already taken from. The food itself was good: it was a simpler meal than Shirou's masterpieces, but well prepared.

"So, tomorrow we will continue taking down that bounded field"

"But that's only a stalling tactic - you said that we probably won't be able to take it all the way down" countered Shirou.

"Saber is trying to find who cast the field. we just need to buy some time for him. And afterwards, I can show you the correct way to cast spells." Rin said as she ate a cherry tomato. Or at least, tried to, but Yuno snagged it off her chopsticks.

"What?"

"That one has a bad spot" Yuno promptly got up and dumped it into the trash.

FSD*FSD

Later, after Rin had left, Yuno helped Shirou clear the table.

"That was a very good meal. Thank you" Shirou said as he turned on the water to wash the dishes.

"It wasn't as good as the ones you make"

"If you want, I can show you what I do."

"Hmm." Yuno was tempted, but she had a job to do, "Let's focus on winning the Grail War." She took a freshly cleaned dish from Shirou and dried it. "I need to be closer to you during the day - what happened in school today was almost a disaster."

"And how will you explain your presence? You can't just follow me around the school. People will notice, and you'll get kicked out. Besides, everything turned out ok."

'_Does this idiot view EVERYTHING through rose colored glasses?' _Yuno smiled, hiding her exasperation with long practice. Before she could say anything, Shirou continued, "besides, now I am allied with Tohsaka, so she can help if something comes up."

'_She better, or I'll gut her like a fish_', "How well do you know Tohsaka, anyway?"

"Not very well, actually, but I am a pretty good judge of character, and she seems like an honorable sort, that is, since she agreed to partner with us, she's going to stand by that agreement and do her best." Shirou thought before speaking, '_And I am certain that deep down, she's a good person, but if I said that, Yuno will laugh at me.'_

"Ok, I guess that's the best we can do" smiled Yuno. '_This idiot is worse than Yuki. At least Yuki was easy to take care of. He knew he needed me. Shirou thinks he can actually take care of himself.' _"And I will have Murmur scouting around the school, looking for any unexpected servants."_  
_

"Thank you" There was a slight pause as the teens finished up the dishes. "So, you're a heroic spirit, right? But, no offense, I don't think I've ever heard of you. Can you tell me about who you are?" Shirou asked tentatively.

"There's not much to tell," Yuno smiled winningly, "I grew up in a traditional house, but then my parents died, and I had to fend for myself. And I had to protect myself and Yuki from enemies that were trying to kill us. How about you? You seem to have a similar background."

"Huh. I guess. My original family died in the Fuyuki fire ten years ago. I almost died as well, but dad - Kiritsugu Emya - rescued me. After that..."

"Did you ever feel guilty about all those people dying?", asked Yuno in a small voice.

Shirou finished drying a couple more dishes before replying, "Yeah, all the time. But I figure if I can rescue others, I can make a start of paying my debt back"

Yuno paused thoughtfully, before pulling herself out of her musings, '_He's just an idiot'._

FSD*FSD

That night, Shirou's dreamed about walking through an empty school. He could hear the voices of students in the background, coming from inside of classrooms, but whenever he looked in, the classroom was empty. There was the sound of running footsteps around a corner, but when he ran to take a look, there was nobody there.

FSD*FSD

The rest of the week followed the same pattern, with Shirou attending school, and then meeting up with Rin to slow the Bounded Field.

As the weekend approached, Rin became more and more frustrated, "Saber still hasn't found who cast the bounded field, and we are losing ground - it could activate any time now." The two were having a hurried conversation before homeroom. "Maybe Yuno should help search"

Shirou sighed "We already talked about this: She can't disincorporate, so she's not going to be able to cover much ground"

"Yeah, and how can any guy resist when a girl smiles sweetly like that and insists she wants to stay close by" Rin smirked.

"It's not like that!" spluttered Shirou, "Look, nothing's going to happen over the weekend with this Bounded Field, not while the students are away, so we will all be able to help Saber search. Maybe by Monday we'll have our culprit." Shirou tried to put the best face on the problem.

"Yeah, well, I think we need to have this solved by Monday, or it will be too late" Rin sighed, and then stood up straighter, putting on her 'school idol' persona before walking off.

Class went on without interruption until just before lunch. _bzzt, bzzt_. Shirou glanced at his phone to see who the text message was from "Shirou, GET OUT! - the bounded field will activate in 5 minutes, killing everybody inside - Yuno"

Shirou glanced up - the teacher continued to lecture about differential equations, without any concern '_What do I do..' _He made a decision.

Everybody looked up in surprise as Shirou ran out of the room. A few moments later, the fire alarm went off. Some of the teenagers were confused, others were delighted to have the time off, but they all made their way out of the building in a controlled chaos. They knew the drill.

Shirou called Yuno as he ran, "Yuno, text Tohsaka as well, I'm going to need her help!"

Shirou was one of the first out of the building, and he stood watching as the other students filed out '_Oh, no - the assembly points are on the school grounds - they're still inside the bounded field'_. He took a deep breath and yelled "I smelled gas - the buildings could explode - everybody get away from the buildings!" He ran for the school entrance. A few of the older students followed hesitantly, looking uncertain if they should be breaking the evacuation rules like this.

Shirou and a handful of others were outside the grounds when the Blood Fort Andromeda sprang up. Students inside the bounded field staggered and slumped down. Shirou reached across the bounded field to pull a boy who was almost at the gate out across the threshold.

As the teens outside the grounds looked on in confusion, Yuno ran up. "Whoever cast the bounded field has to be close by to harvest the prana. This is our best chance to get them." Yuno glanced down at her phone, "Murmur says that there is somebody in the park east of the school."

Shirou nodded and darted for the park that edged the school.

Yuno caught up easily, "no idiot. stay back and cover me - I'm going to take the lead" '_The only reason you're here and not locked up in a safe somewhere is that I need your perceptions for the Master Diary.'_

Instead of replying, Shirou pointed "there they are!" as the two turned to run deeper into the heavily wooded park, Yuno side stepped and knocked Shirou to the ground just as a spiked chain flew through where his head had been. As Shirou rolled to his feet, he grabbed a stick and reinforced it (carefully) with his new Magic circuits.

Yuno was darting from tree to tree trying to close to melee distance with a blur with purple hair that jumped from branch to branch, lashing out with spikes that were attached to her body by chains.

'_Wait - purple hair? does that mean..' _"Shinji! Come out" Shirou yelled, glancing around - '_there - there's somebody over there'_ "Shinji! lower the bounded field. People are going to get hurt.

"Hurt?" Shinji's voice echoed out, though the man himself was still hidden, "They're going to get **_liquified_**!" He laughed.

As Shirou made his way towards where the voice was coming from, a spiked chain flew at him, and he barely deflected it in time. Another came right after it. Soon Shirou was staggering from blow after blow. They were all glancing hits, as if the servant was playing with him "You are as pathetic as your Servant. What were you hoping to accomplish, little boy?"

Another spiked chair flew out, this one wrapping around his neck. As Shirou grasped at it, the female Servant dropped to the ground in front of him, pulling on the other end of the chain (which was looped over a branch above). She smiled as she hoisted him up into the air, "Master ordered me to make you suffer". Then she suddenly looked to the left and dashed off.

Shirou dangled, slowly suffocating.

A black gander shot struck the chain, rusting it away to nothing. Shirou dropped as Tohsaka ran up. "Are you ok?"

Shirou nodded his ascent, "We need to find Yuno.." he whispered.

Before they could go anywhere, the pink haired girl staggered into the clearing, holding her hand to a gash in her side. There was blood all down her front. Despite the obvious pain in her eyes, she smiled cheerfully, "Don't worry, I got Shinji to drop the Boundary Field before I killed him". She swayed and collapsed.

END chapter

Please review - It's really helpful for me to fine tune the story.


	5. Chapter 5

chapter

Shirou brought a bowl of Soup into Yuno's room, "How are you feeling?"

Yuno grimaced, "I'll be fine in the morning. I am a Servant, remember? How about you - your neck didn't look so good." She was lying propped up on her futon. Rin had bound the gash in her side (Shirou had volunteered to help, but Rin had chased him away, calling him a pervert).

"My neck is fine, I'm a fast healer" scowled Shirou.

"Than why are you so upset? We won today."

Flashback

Shirou and Rin were helping support Yuno when Saber materialized and scooped up the injured Servant. "Some Hero of Justice you are, Emya. If your servant hadn't lucked out, all of the people in school would have died"

end flashback

"I wasn't able to save everybody"

Yuno looked at him sternly, "I don't understand why you feel the need to help people who don't care about you. You should save your efforts for those that love you." She sighed, "be that as it may, you got some of the students out of the bounded field. You should feel proud of that"

"Some is not enough" Shirou replied morosely, sitting down next to Yuno's futon.

"You still did more than anybody else. That's all that you can hope for, sometimes."

Shirou thought on that for several minutes, "I guess that's true", '_But next time, I'll do better'. _"I need to talk to Saber. Feel better."

FSD*FSD

"Saber, I want you to train me in how to fight" Shirou walked out into the dining room, where Rin and Saber were eating their dinner.

Saber took a sip of his soup, "And why should I? So that you can get yourself killed trying to save others? Seems like a waste of my time. I could just kill you right now, and save you the effort."

"Not funny" smirked Rin.

"No, I mean, yes, I would like to help people, but that's not why I am asking you to train me - I want you to train me so that the next time I am in a dangerous situation like tonight, I'll do a better job. I was pathetic out there!"

Saber nodded agreement, "yes you were. But no matter how skilled you are, there will always be situations that are too dangerous for you, where you will die."

"I'm not an idiot," Shirou countered, "But if I could defend myself, there would be more situations where I could help, without endangering myself. I.. I understand I can't save everybody, but I need to be able to save SOME people."

Saber quirked his eyebrow in amusement before turning to Rin, "What say you, little Master? Is this worth the effort?"

"Don't call me 'little' master, you impudent thug" Snarled Rin, "And yes, go ahead and train him. What could it hurt?"

'_You would be surprised. But this Shirou is different from the way I was'_ Saber sighed in annoyance and stood up and said, "follow me."

FSD*FSD

"This would be a lot easier if I could scout the city from the air" Murmur complained. She was back to her usual size.

"No flying!" scolded Yuno. The pair were in Yuno's room at Shirou's house, and Murmur was reporting her success (or lack there of) in finding other Master's bases. "I am concerned that if we use divine magic, that the local Deux Ex Machina will find and expell us." _'besides, my reserves are not unlimited, and Murmur has no concept of conservation.'_

"FINE!" pouted the small purple woman, "But then don't get all annoyed if I can't find anything. I don't understand how you humans manage to accomplish anything, walking around on two stubby legs."

"Not everybody is as stubby as you." replied Yuno. An image of Rin flashed into her mind. Followed by that of Sakura. A scowl slowly settled onto her features. "That reminds me - what have you found out at the Matou residence?"

"There is something unnatural about that house. I don't know if it has magical protections, or if it is haunted, but it calls for caution." Murmur frowned, "though I don't understand why you are so concerned about that Sakura girl. She seems friendly"

"Nobody is that friendly without an ulterior motive" Yuno replied, "She's hiding something."

FSD*FSD

That weekend was filled with pain. Saber pushed Shirou to his limit, attacking him over and over. They trained with paired bocken, which Shirou found a very comfortable style. Despite all the beatings Shirou endured, he enjoyed the lessons. Unlike some martial arts classes he had had, Saber's style made intuitive sense. '_This is so much better than when Fuji-nee tried to teach me Kendo. All those formal stances, and rules for when you can attack...'_ Shirou guzzled down a bottle of water, "Why don't more people use this style? it feels very... organic?" Shirou asked Saber, who was perched on a stump, peering down at the supine Magus.

"Because you have to be willing to get stabbed to use it. It relies on speed and offense to cover openings that you leave available for your enemy."

"But it works" Shirou was puzzled.

"Only if you are fast enough, which you are not."

"Well then, teach me to be faster!'

Saber's eyes narrowed, "There is a way, but it is very dangerous." Saber paused, to let Shirou take that concept in. Not that it would deter him, "You need to reinforce your muscles just like you do non-living material. If you do it just right, you will become faster and stronger. If you do it wrong, you will die, and save the other guy the hassle of killing you" Saber wasn't certain why he was teaching Shirou. Not that it would make any difference for him, seeing as this was an alternate reality, but still, Shirou was an idiot. '_I guess I still want to save people, and the only way to save this idiot is to teach him how to fight.'_

"Let's call it a day"

As Shirou made his way into the main building, to start dinner, he saw Rin coming in, dragging a suitcase. "Uhm, Tohsaka? what are you doing?"

"I'm moving in, obviously" She stood her luggage up, "so why don't you show me which room I should take."

"Uhm, but why?" '_what will people think? what will Fuji-nee think?'_ Shirou was starting to panic.

"Because if we are going to be working together, it will be easier to coordinate if we are all living under the same roof. Besides, Saber is here for hours on end training you anyways."

"Uhm, ok? But what do we tell Fujimura?"

"That you and I are getting married and that I moved in so that we could have wild sex?" Rin asked.

"Aahrgmf!" Shirou's jaw fell off his face and he stood frozen, while his brain tried to reboot and failed. He blinked. Nope. Rin's words still didn't make any sense. Blink.

Rin collapsed in laughter at the horrified expression on Shirou's face. "No, I mean.." she tried to explain, but each time she glanced at Shirou, she cracked up again, "Oh, god. You should see the expression on your face." She wiped tears off her face, "I needed that. No seriously, we'll tell Fujimura-sensei that my house is undergoing repairs. With all the 'mysterious' property damage happening all over Fuyuki City, it will be fairly believable."

"Oh, ok." Shirou replied, "you know, you're not a lot like the persona that you project in school."

"And you, are JUST like your school persona, except more so." smirked Rin as she grabbed her luggage,

"What exactly does that mean?" Shirou scowled.

Rin just shrugged casually, ignoring Shirou's question. "So, which room?"

Shirou took the lead, "that one - the one furthest down the hall. That way we won't bother Yuno when we are having wild sex."

Rin almost tripped over herself, "ahm". She took another look at Shirou as the redhead walked calmly on. '_he's just joking, right?'_

FSD*FSD

The following morning was very tense. In addition to Fujimura, the Emya breakfast table also hosted Sakura. Once Rin had let slip that she was staying at Maison d'Emya, Sakura's expression had hardened and for a moment she had actually looked like she would cry. Conversation, if it happened, was stilted. Taiga tried to fill the gaps with embarrassing stories about Shirou, but nobody was listening.

'_What's going on? They are all nice girls - why are they just sitting there, smiling and not talking.' _Shirou wasn't the most sensitive of people, but the atmosphere was getting to him, '_And there is no school today because many of the students are still in the hospital. There is NO escape!'' _"I'm going to go for a short walk. You guys finish up breakfast - don't bother with the dishes, I'll take care of them when I get back."

"Where are you going?" Sakura asked suspiciously.

"I just need some fresh air. I think I ate too much."

Shirou waved and set off for town before any of the girls could get the idea of coming with him.

Half way down the hill to town, he felt himself relax. '_That's better. Maybe having so many girls under the same roof is just not physically possible. There must be some sort of physical limit, and if you exceed it, they explode.' _Shirou mused as he walked.

He walked aimlessly for some time. Soon, he was in a neighborhood that he wasn't familiar with, not far from the river. It was a run down residential area, with nets and other fishing gear lying on the unkempt lawns of most of the homes. As he walked by, Shirou noticed a food store, '_hmm. I should buy some supplies, if I'm going to be hosting Rin and Saber.'_

He was just coming out of the grocery store, one bag dangling from right arm, another in his left when he heard a voice say, "Hello Oni-san. Let me help you with that."

He turned to see the silver haired girl "oh, ahm. Hi?"

Illya reached up and took one of the grocery bags from his arm before turning and walking towards a small park, "I thought I should get to know you, Oni-san, since you are nothing like I expected."

"I don't think so." Yuno grabbed Shirou's arm before he could take a step after Illya, "We're going home. You have to start making lunch."

Shirou looked surprised, '_where did she come from? Is it really that late?',_ "Would you like to join us for lunch?"

Yuno gritted her teeth and smiled, but Illya just shook her head, watching Yuno out of the corner of her eye, "We will spend time together some other time. But don't worry, Oni-san, I won't forget you" she handed the bag of groceries back to Yuno and walked off.

Yuno spun on Shirou and demanded 'You know that she's a Master, so why were you going off alone with her?"

"Just because she's a Master doesn't make her a bad person. She seems very nice."

"What are you a loli-con or something?"

"What?! No! But why should I assume that she's evil, just because she's a Master."

"Just because she acts all sweet and kind is no reason to assume that she's not evil" Yuno pointed out in a gentle voice.

"So are you saying that I should assume you're some kind of monster?" Shirou asked.

Yuno just grabbed his arm and walked off. After several moments, she muttered, "I didn't become servant Assassin by accident"

As Shirou mulled that over, they heard a scream for help. They were on a tree lined street that ran along a rock face. On the other side of the rocks was the Fuyuki River. It was a fairly empty spot, with almost no houses.

Shirou dropped his groceries and ran, followed by an exasperated Yuno. As they rounded the rocks, they saw a strange sight - Shinji's purple haired servant was holding a man in an embrace, but he appeared to be visibly wilting, like the life was being sucked out of him. Before Shirou could do anything, a crossbow bolt leaped down from the rock face, piercing through the man and into the Servant. She staggered away, trailing blood, as a blond woman, dressed in all white plate armor (but without a helmet) dropped down and attacked her with a rapier. A large crossbow was strapped to her back. The battle was short and brutal - the wounded servant didn't have time to draw her weapons before the armored woman ran her through. As the dying servant slumped to the ground, the white knight slash down, taking off her head, "Die, you abomination unto god!" she called out. She wiped her weapon on the grass before sheathing it. She appeared to be a teenager, though it was hard to tell, as her scowl added years to her face. Her blond hair was cut short, so it wouldn't get into her face as she fought.

Yuno threw Shirou to the ground as a gunshot rang out. From out of the trees stepped a huge mountain of a man, a pistol in his hands, "Archer, kill them! We can't have witnesses!" he rumbled. The Servant Archer darted forward, her sword raised. Yuno leaped to counter her, knife in one hand, Master Diary in the other. Shirou ducked behind a tree, reinforcing it, as the man-mountain fired another shot.

The two servants fought furiously but clumsily. Having trained with Saber, Shirou could tell that neither fighter was particularly skilled, but they were inhumanly fast. After a brief exchange, Yuno faked towards Archer and then darted for her Master, the gunman. Archer raised her sword and proclaimed "Holy Path to Victory." A soft white light filled the area. Yuno stumbled and looked confused for a moment, before darting to attack Archer again.

The Servants continued fighting, but now Yuno couldn't catch a break - everything she did seemed to work out poorly. Yuno would dodge attacks before Archer even started them, but something would go wrong each time - either she wouldn't complete the move, or her foot would slip, so that Archer was still able to score a glancing blow. And Archer's sword was a Noble Phantasm of some sort, as even a slight touch left a wound. But Yuno's own attacks were too tentative: if she had been a more skilled fighter, they might have done some damage, but she relied heavily on her foreknowledge, and her confused state made that useless.

"You can not stop my Divine Retribution" called out Archer pompously. At the same time, the gunman decided that Shirou was no threat and started shooting at Yuno. Yuno found herself being forced back towards the river. She glanced behind her nervously. When she did, a bullet struck her shoulder, knocking her off off her feet. As she scrambled to get back up, Archer plunged forward to deliver the coup de grace.

Shirou leaped from behind his tree, reinforcing his legs and hands. He smashed against Archer and pushed against the blade of her sword with his hand as it plunged towards Yuno.

Archer's eyes widened as the sword did not leave a single mark on Shirou's hand.

The gunman swore and tried to circle to get a clear shot at Shirou.

As Archer recovered, Shirou grabbed Yuno and dived into the river, some thirty feet below.

FSD*FSD

"I'm sorry I lost the groceries, we will have to make do with what we have in the house" Shirou said glumly. He and Yuno had changed into dry clothing, though Yuno was forced to wear a plain blue and white dress that Shirou had found squirreled away in an unused room. It was almost night time - it had taken them a long time to return home after their misadventures, and they were the only ones present, Rin and Saber were doing who know what.

"Thank you for saving my life" Yuno replied. She appeared somewhat shocked at the turn of events.

"What happened? I could see she used some sort of Noble Phantasm, but all I could tell was that you started losing." Shirou brought out a pot of tea and the two teens sat down in the living room, trying to warm up (they had both gotten chilled by their immersion in the river). Shirou glanced at Yuno, '_she's looks pretty in that dress'_. Yuno's usual clothes tended to the frilly & girly, while this was more severe.

Yuno nodded glumly, "She did something, and I got disoriented. Every move I made after that was wrong."

"Yuno - why did you try to kill that man. I thought we agreed that we would only attack the servants."

"I never agreed to that. That would be stupid! I am an Assassin class: That means my fighting skills are nowhere as good as the other Servants. How will we win if I don't target the Masters?"

Shirou shook his head, "If you can't win on your own, then I will help you. I'll train harder with Saber."

Yuno just sat there, staring at Shirou over her cup. Shirou started to get uncomfortable, with that prolonged stare. Finally, she looking away. "That is either the stupidest or the sweetest thing that anybody has ever said to me. Possibly both."

Shirou didn't have anything to say to that, so he topped off Yuno's tea. "Do you want a blanket?"

"No thank you. I am happy the way I am." Yuno smiled, and then looked surprised by something before hunching over her cup. Shirou put out a tin of crackers and sat down on the couch, exhausted. The two teens sat that way drinking their tea, lost in thought. They were still sitting like that when Rin came in.

FSD*FSD

After Shirou and Yuno made dinner, Rin, Saber and the two cooks talked strategy.

"So now we know about Saber, Assassin, Lancer and Archer," Rin lectured, "That leaves Rider, Berserker and Caster"

"Illya said that her Servant is Berserker" added Shirou as he chewed.

"Don't talk with your mouth full. It's disgusting. Ok, so that purple haired woman was probably Rider, Which is strange - Rider shouldn't have been able to survive so long without a master. I guess she went 'vampire' and was living off of the life energy that she drained"

"Well, she's dead now" added Yuno, "We need to deal with the others. It would help if we knew where they operated out of"

Rin smiled, "Well, Saber and I have been doing some research: the von Einzbern family is one of the original designers of the Grail System, and they have a property - a mansion, really, at the outskirts of Fuyuki City. So I had Saber check it out. It looks like it's occupied again, for the first time in years."

"So that's the Illyasviel brat. What about the others?" Yuno nodded.

"Hey, Illya seems like a sweet girl" Shirou protested

"Loli-con" muttered Rin.

"What? No! I like mature women!"

"Well, that leaves everybody present out" smirked Saber, "though Sakura might qualify".

"What?" sputtered Rin, "Sakura's a year younger than me!"

"I was talking about how she acts."

"That's beside the point" Shirou bulled on, blushing slightly,"Shinji mentioned that a Servant was operating out of Ryuudou temple."

"Hmm. Maybe I should have asked him some questions before slicing his throat" Yuno sighed in annoyance.

Shirou looked appalled, "Shinji used to be my friend. I know he became a jerk and had to be stopped, but can you not talk about killing him like that?"

"Oh, I am sorry" Yuno shrugged apologetically, "I wouldn't want to say anything that would offend my Master." She sounded completely serious, without a hint of sarcasm.

'_That girl is creepy. Very, very creepy'_, Rin sent silently to Saber. "In that case, Shirou and I will go up there tomorrow and check it out"

"Why not go this evening?" Shirou demanded.

"Because you have training" Saber replied, wiping his mouth and standing up.

"Also, two people visiting Ryuudou during the day would be a lot less suspicious." Rin added, "and it will have to be us - If there is a Servant up there, he will be able to sense another Heroic Spirit"

"I will come too - I am not detectable" added Yuno, "And somebody needs to keep Shirou safe."

"I guess" Rin said grudgingly.

Saber just frowned.

FSD*FSD

"Hey, kid - I want to show you something new" Saber and Shirou were in the dojo, preparing to train. "Put the boken away. I want you to try copying what I do." Saber stood still, feet shoulder width apart, hands at his sides. All of a sudden, two falchions appeared in his hands, from thin air.

"Take a good look at these swords. Now try creating your own pair."

"I can't do that sort of magic! All I can do is reinforcement!" Shirou protested.

"I didn't ask if you could. I told you to try." Saber replied, annoyed.

Shirou studied the swords. He didn't understand what Saber was getting at. What was there to study? They weren't some fancy piece of machinery, like a vacuum cleaner or a space heater. They were just swords: 0.91 kg in weight, 95.25 centimeters long, of which 80.01 cm was the blade. The steel had been folded 4 times, and quenched in such a way that it formed micro crystals along the surface, but left the core flexible. They had the property of seeking and returning, with the goal of each other, and, oddly, love.

But how could he create them? "I can't do that."

Saber sighed and released the projections, letting them fade."Kid, anything I can do, you can do." at Shirou's puzzled look, he continued, "I'm not a Heroic Spirit, like the other Servant's. I am a Counter Guardian from another reality. That means it was my job to find people that presented a clear and present danger to humanity and kill them."

"But you said you're not from our reality?"

"That's right. I don't know how I ended up here, and honestly, I'm kind of pissed, because I was hoping to kill you, but now there's no point"

Shirou's eyes got really big and he looked to see if he could make it to the door before Saber took off his head.

"Relax kid. I'm not going to hurt you. Like I said, there's no point, not anymore." Saber scratched the back of his head, "You see, you're an alternate, younger version of me. You're the me in this reality, or you could say I am the older you in my reality"

Shirou frowned in confusion, "What does this have to do with you killing me?"

"If you were the me in my reality, I would kill you before you became me, because being a Counter Guardian sucks."

"If it's so bad, then why would I do it? or is the me in your reality stupid?"

"Hey, that's me you're insulting" Saber replied.

"Oh, sorry" Shirou bowed in apology.

"The reality is, we are both that stupid. Being a Counter Guardian is a natural outgrowth of our need to rescue everybody."

Shirou sat and processed that for a moment, "I need to think about the 'Hero of Justice' thing. Watching Yuno... What she is willing to do in the name of rescuing Yuki is disturbing. I don't know how she ended up where she is, but I bet she started out with the best intentions. I need to think about it."

"Yeah I figured. That's why I am talking to you about this. The younger me wouldn't have listened, but the younger me didn't have somebody as twisted as Yuno." Saber scratched the back of his head again. '_You know, this is the weirdest conversation that I've ever had. And the oddest part - no matter how crazy I sound, I know my audience understands what I'm saying.'_

"So you also fought in the Holy Grail war?"

"Yeah, but mine was completely different. There was no Assassin, and I was partnered with Arturia Pendragon, who was Saber. She was a true hero - a defender of the weak and clueless." Saber's expression softened.

"Sounds like you fell in love with her."

"Yeah. Which didn't help me any with my career choice. Ok, get up, and try tracing those falchions. I know you have them memorized."

The rest of the evening passed with Shirou practicing tracing and training with real weapons.

As Shirou staggered back towards the main building, dripping with sweat, he turned to Saber, "So can you tell me anything about the grail war?"

"Sorry, no - My memories got all jumbled, I guess from jumping dimensions. And what I do remember doesn't apply. I remember getting smashed by Berserker as I rescued Saber. I remember standing by her side as we defeated some idiot in gold armor. Mostly I remember the fights, with Saber doing most of the fighting." Saber shrugged. '_Well, that and having sex with Arturia. That was definitely memorable. But I can't mention that: he's still a kid - he'll go into shock'_


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter

The following day, Shirou, Yuno and Rin headed up to Ryuudou temple.

"What's that?" Rin eyed the cooler Yuno was lugging around as they headed for the bus stop.

"It's a picnic lunch. We want to fit in, right? This will make us inconspicuous"

Rin snorted, "Yeah right. Not if you're the one lugging it" she took the hamper from Yuno and gave it to Shirou.

Shirou nodded, 'Yeah, it would look suspicious if a slim girl like her was able to carry a heavy cooler so easily."

"No, idiot. The guy carries the food. That's all."

Even Yuno smirked at that.

The trip to the Temple passed quickly, with Rin and Shirou chatting about school. Rin was a keen observer of her classmates' foibles, and this was the first chance she had had to air her exasperation with them. But she was careful to keep her comments light and humorous, and they were soon joking back and forth. Yuno sat quietly, looking uncharacteristically pensive._ 'What the hell am I doing? I leaped into the space between universes in order to have a second chance to be with Yuki. But I can't find Yuki. So now what?'_ She hugged herself.

When they got off the bus, Rin looked up at Ryuudou temple. "Isn't there an elevator?"

"It's only some stairs. And Issei does this every day"

"Yes, but Issei is crazy."

"Hey, he's a good guy, even if he talks a little formally."

"Then why does he cower and speak in tongues whenever I walk past him? That boy is touched in the head." Rin scowled as she started climbing the (extremely long) stair.

Shirou hefted the cooler and followed, "I don't know - maybe he saw your real personality?"

Yuno brought up the rear, "Actually, Rin's not so bad. I'm glad that we ended up allied with her."

Shirou kept walking, waiting for Yuno to say a punch-line. When she didn't, he mentioned, "I am glad that you two are getting along better" '_If a little surprised. Maybe Yuno is rediscovering her humanity'_

Rin continued walking up the stairs, not certain how to reply. As the trio approached the top, she waved for the other two to stop. "Let me check for any Bounded Fields" They stepped off the stair onto a grassy area outside the main gate. Several tourists walked by, giving them incurious glances. Yuno and Shirou chatted quietly, trying to look normal while Rin worked.

After ten minutes, Rin shook her head. "There is a very complex bounded field here. I am not exactly certain how it works, but it is for detection only, and I _think_ it will detect a Heroic Spirit, even Assassin. I had to be very gentle with it, for fear of setting it off myself."

"We still need to go up there and scout out the temple. There are loads of people in there, so we aren't going to get attacked. But maybe it would be best if Yuno waited for us at home" Shirou looked at the two girls, to see if they would go along with his plan.

"Ok. just stay in the populated areas" Yuno smiled and then leaned over to whisper to Rin, "You could make this a date: you two would make a cute couple." She started back down the stairs, "have a good time" she waved.

Rin stood, dumbfounded, before turning awkwardly to Shirou, "erg, come on, baka. Lets go inside."

Once on the temple grounds, they wandered about, first stopping off at the shrine to pay their respects. Then Rin dragged Shirou out to one of the scenic overlooks, where they had a view of all of Fuyuki City.

"You know, from up here, it all looks so neat and orderly. It's hard to image magic existing in such a world" Shirou mused as he leaned on the railing.

Rin scootched over to him "that's the way we like it. Magi spend most of their time doing research, and they don't like being disturbed by chaos."

"What about Magi who want to engage with the world? You know, to make it a better place."

Rin smiled, "you're so naive" '_Or maybe idealistic_', "Magi don't do that sort of thing. Actually, you can get into big trouble if you let common people know about magic."

"And you want to be like that?"

Rin shrugged, "I like magic, working spells, trying out new things. And I'm not really good with people"

"But you're the School Idol!"

"Yeah, that makes it easier. Nobody wants to have a real conversation with me, they just want to hang out with me as a status thing." Rin shrugged.

"But why not? you're..." Shirou paused as he searched for the right word

"Nice?" Rin supplied, with a smile.

"No"

"Hey!" She glared at Shirou

"No, but you are a lot of fun." Shirou bulled ahead, over Rin's teasing.

"Thanks" They stood quietly for a moment, Rin watching Shirou out of the corner of her eye. "Let's go eat." She pulled him over to the picnic area off to the side of the temple.

As they munched on their lunch Shirou pointed out, "I haven't seen anything suspicious yet"

"Other than that bounded field - that was very intricate. I'm thinking that the Servant up here is Caster class."

"Well, I could ask Issei, if he's in." Shirou led the way to the living quarters of the Temple. He had never visited Issei at home - he got the impression that the formal boy felt a little awkward about having friends running around in a religious space. Or maybe he was embarrassed by his father's piousness. It was hard to tell.

"Oh, hi, Emya! It is nice to see... you..." Issei's voice trailed of as he noticed Rin standing in the background, "what's the witch doing here?" he whispered.

"I ran into her at the lookout spot."Shirou didn't argue the the 'witch' part. It was accurate enough, "You guys have a great view. But we got to talking, and we weren't certain what else is open to the public here, so we were hoping you could show us around a little."

Issei's eyes lit up, "Ok. Let me grab some shoes and I will take you around." The next hour was spent with Issei explaining the history of the temple, and the significance of the various items in it. It was mildly interesting, but the the tour was spoiled by Issei being too pedantic, and by Rin, who kept making faces and rolling her eyes whenever Issei's back was turned.

"So, do you have a lot of guests staying here?" Shirou asked, as they passed the guest quarters.

"Not currently. We just Kuzuki-sensei and his fiancee. Which is stretching the rules a little, since technically, woman aren't allowed to stay at the temple" Issei frowned slightly at why they had agreed to bend the rules. Then he shrugged it off.

"Oh, I didn't know that sensei was engaged. Have they been together a long time?" Rin asked.

"I... don't know. He's a private person. His fiance just arrived a couple of weeks ago." Issei continued the tour.

Afterwards, Rin and Shirou walked down the stair. "I'm pretty confident that Caster is Kuzuki-sensei's fiancee. So chances are, he's a Master."

"Does that mean he's a magus?" asked Shirou.

"I don't think so - I think I would have picked up on it if he was. It's rare, but a non-magus can become a master. In the last Grail war, one of the Masters wasn't a magus. His servant preyed on children to get enough prana." Rin shuddered, remembering her close call '_I was so stupid back then'._

"In that case, Caster is probably responsible for all those 'gas leak' incidents. It's lucky she hasn't killed anybody yet. Or maybe, she not so bad"

"Idiot. killing people would attract attention, either from the Police or from me, as the local representative of the Magus association."

"So you don't think we could talk her out of going for the grail? " Shirou asked as they waited for the bus

"Talk her out of.." Rin's eyes almost popped out of her head, "Are you joking?"

"Actually, yes" Shirou replied, '_well, I guess I am'_, "We'll have to find some way to lure her out of Ryuudou."

"Yeah. I imagine it's loaded with traps that she can activate if we confront her there"

"And the monks could get caught in the crossfire" Shirou added, pointedly.

"Yeah, that too." Rin agreed, chagrined. Shirou looked skeptical. "Hey, I'm not some psycho like your Yuno - I don't want anybody to get hurt anymore than you do!" she snapped out, sounding defensive.

"Yuno is just a product of her times." '_whatever those are'_, "She has been mellowing as she gets more used to the modern world."

"Yeah. She needs to get used to the modern world" '_though she seems to know how to use the internet better than I do.' _Rin replied, pacifyingly.

FSD*FSD

"Again, but faster" Saber leaped in to attack Shirou, bokens flying. Shirou had reinforced himself, so that he was able to move faster than humanly possible, so he got hit only three times out of every four. Sabers idea of training Shirou was brutal - they would spar with bokens for hours each evening. Then, after they were done, he would spend fifteen minutes showing Shirou assorted weapons from his collection.

"Ok, that wasn't too bad" Saber nodded, "you almost didn't suck."

"Call it a night, guys" Rin came into the dojo, "We need to sit down and discuss what we are going to do about Caster.

Shirou grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat of his face, "I hate to say it, but maybe we should ambush Kuzuki-san. You said that you had a way of taking the command seals off of him without hurting him"

"I can do it without killing him, but I will have to cut off his arm." Rin replied.

"Oh, In that case that may not be such a good idea. How about we use him as bait for Caster?"

'_My, how having a different servant changed him. I guess all that bleed over in his sleep has given him some of Yuno's practicality_' Saber smiled, happy that he had made the right choice to train Shirou.

There was a loud crash from the main building.

"What was that?" asked Rin

"Yuno's in there!" Shirou traced a pair of falchions and ran to the rescue.

"Or, maybe not." sighed Saber, following.

Inside the main house, it was a mess. A woman in a hooded cloak had just hit Yuno with some sort of spell. As the pink haired girl staggered, the hooded woman drifted in and stabbed her in the chest with a glowing dagger.

"No!" roared Shirou, charging in, only to slam into a bounded field. As Rin ran up, she started an Aria. But in the few moments it took her to drop the field, the woman scooped up Yuno and flew off on multi-hued butterfly wings.

"Who was that?" Shirou staggered into the wrecked room

"At a guess, that was Caster." Rin sighed, "I'm sorry Shirou - she must have somehow detected us when we visited Ryudou this morning and followed us home. I should have done a better job of screening us."

Shirou just shook his head, "What does she want with Yuno?"

"She's obviously a magus from the age of legends. She has spells that are beyond anything a modern magus has available. She may try to drain the prana from Yuno for her own use" Rin guessed.

"Or she could try to bind her to her service" Saber pointed to Shirou's arm. When he glanced down, he saw the command seals had faded away.

"How?" Shirou thought back to the dagger he had glimpsed, "Rule Breaker. She severed the binding between me and Yuno and took it for herself.

Saber nodded.

"Well, in that case we'll just have to go and rescue Yuno."

"Are you certain Yuno will want to be rescued?" asked Rin. "You weren't exactly her type, as a master I mean. She may be happier with a more aggressive master."

Shirou paced through the wreckage. "I don't know. Maybe you're right. But we can't leave her. Yuno... If Caster pushes Yuno to be more aggressive, she could end hurting, maybe even killing a lot of people, but I think that at her core, she's still a decent person. If we can get her away from Caster, we can prevent all that."

"And if can't rescue her for whatever reason?" asked Saber.

"Then... Then we'll have to kill her. She's not safe out on her own like that." Shirou replied quietly. "We should go now."

"Are you certain we shouldn't wait until tomorrow, when you will be better rested?"

Saber shook his head, "I agree with Shirou - we can't give Caster time to do whatever she's planning. Come here - I'll carry the both of you"

"Uhm" Shirou looked skeptically at the older version of himself.

"What, you want to bicycle down to Ryuudou? Or maybe take the bus? Time is of the essence."

"Ok"

Saber's leaps weren't quite as fast as Caster's butterfly wings, but they nevertheless reached the base of the temple hill in less than a half hour.

"From here, we walk"

They were halfway up the the stair when Saber held out his hand. "Do you hear that?" He asked.

Shirou reinforced his ears. "It sounds like some sort of machinery"

Saber nodded, "the sound is coming from over there" He pointed off into the forest. "Lets check it out"

Rin nodded, "I don't like leaving something unknown behind me"

The trio made their way through the trees and underbrush to an opening in the hillside. Rin scanned for any magical traps, while Shirou sniffed like a blood hound. "This places smells acrid, like diesel fumes"

"I don't smell anything Rin frowned, "And there aren't any active spells" After a moment, she added, "You must be smelling the spill over from some powerful ritual that's running inside there."

"Maybe Caster's base isn't actually in the temple."

"Let's go."

The three would-be heroes walked carefully into the cave. The cave snaked along before opening into a huge cavern, which was filled with a reproduction of a Greek city.

"What is this? asked Shirou.

"No clue. Watch your step" Rin replied.

As they made their way down to the bottom of the cave, Saber pointed to a copy of the Parthenon that jutted from a wall part way up the side of the cave, "The noise is coming from there"

Before the trio could do anything, though, there was a creaking and snapping sound, and dozens of bone warriors stepped out from alleyway and from behind buildings.

Saber leaped forward, smashing the creatures with his twin falchions.

A moment later, Shirou projects his own pair and followed, more slowly, while Rin uses Gander and Jewel shot to pick off any skeletons that they missed,

'_I feel useless here'_ she groused, as she cast another explosive Jewel shot at a skeleton, '_they could hack their way through unaided'_ She watched the two men fight, '_Shirou is a quick study. He fights just like Saber.'_

'_Oh, I suck!_' Shirou ducked under a skeletons sword just in time. '_Saber makes this so easy, but if I try to keep up, I'm going to get killed!'_

"We're almost there!" yelled Saber. He leaped forward and used a massive two handed sword to smash open the Parthenon's door, opening into another cave, one that was more natural in appearance, with stalactites, "Watch out!" He yelled, throwing himself backwards as a blast of raw magic struck where had just stood, warping colors into a psychedelic afterimage.

Caster flew out, like a crazed attack butterfly. As she did, Shirou saw motion out of the corner of his eye and dodged just in time to avoid Yuno, knife in hand.

Yuno's usually frilly sweater and skirt had been transformed into an ominous black evening dress. Or perhaps it was Yuno that looked ominous, with a maniacal smile on her face.

"Get back!" Yelled Rin as she spat Gander spheres at Yuno.

Shirou whirled and blocked a punch from Kuzuki, who had attempted to blind side Rin. "You take Yuno, I'll handle this guy!"

Shirou expected the fight to be short, and it almost was: Caster had reinforced the sensei somehow, and the man knew how to fight. It was all Shirou could do to stay alive. Each of Kuzuki's punches could shatter rock. Each time Shirou blocked an attack, he had to trace a new copy of his falchion.

Meanwhile, Caster soared high above Saber, laughing, "There is no way you can win. You may be the most powerful Servant, but your power is for naught if you can not reach me!" two blasts of light lashed out from her hands, forcing Saber to retreat even further from his companions.

'_Her attack is slow_' Saber risked a glance at where Shirou and Caster's master fought, '_but if I take him out, she will still have time for one last shot, at my back'_ Saber jumped behind a house as another of Caster's blasts lashed out, raining debris on him.

"Stand still, damn you" snarled Rin as she sent blast after blast at the rogue Assassin.

"Can't stand the competition?" smirked Yuno, "then stay out of the kitchen!" She mangled the idiom badly, but that didn't seem to bother her, as she darted towards Rin.

"Yeaah!" Rin released a huge fusillade of Gander shot, in an attempt to slow her attacker.

'_I need to finish him fast! Rin needs me!'_ Shirou poured more prana into reinforcing his limbs. With blinding speed, he ducked under one of Kuzuki's devastating punches and rammed a sword into his gut, _'sorry, Sensei. My friends come first.'_

Saber leaped behind a column as another blast seared the ground with color.

"You can't run forever, little man" Caster crowed as she flew around the column. Her eyes grew wide as she saw Saber raise a bow and fire an arrow at her. She just had time to cast a protective spell. The arrow hit the glowing field. But the arrow was Rule Breaker, and Caster's spells shattered into an explosion of light.

With a scream, she plunged to the ground.

Rin screamed as Yuno burst through her barrage, taking several Gander shots, but still moving fast enough to strike Rin's head with her knife.

Shirou ran over to Rin, stopping short when confronted with Yuno standing over her body. They stared at each other for a moment, gauging each other as the readied for the other to attack.

As Caster staggered up, a rain of blades flew down, one after another, piercing her body before she could recover. She collapsed, pinned to the ground by numerous swords.

Yuno staggered, stepping back from Rin, "Shirou.." she appeared dazed, "I want to help. Take me back as your servant. Caster compelled me to fight you, but I was trying to find some way to get out from under her compulsion."

"What? After you killed Rin?" Shirou asked, incredulous at the girl's gall.

"She's not dead. I can't kill her. You used a command seal on me and ordered me not to kill her, remember?"

"I'm not certain command seals work like that" Saber staggered up, looking completely wrung out, "But I can testify that my little master is still very much alive."

"Please, I'm going to fade away" Yuno looked desperate. "I want to... I need to find Yuki."

Shirou nodded "ok, Fine." He traced Rule Breaker. "Will you, Yuno Gasai, be my Servant?" he asked.

"Yes she nodded, "and will you, Shirou Emya, be my Master?"

"Yes," Shirou stabbed her with the stolen Noble Phantasm. The remaining command seal snapped from Caster's slowly dissolving body back onto Shirou arm. Yuno smiled gleefully and even gave Shirou a quick hug as Saber scooped up Rin. The magus stirred groggily

"What did you mean that Command seals don't work that way?" asked Shirou as they turned to walk out of the cave. Rin waved feeble, insisting that she be put down. Saber ignored her.

Unseen, Kuzuki levered himself up. His life was over. Whether he lived or died was irrelevant, now that she was no more. He raised his arm and concentrated, his command seals glowing.

"I mean that your commands to Yuno only last while you are her Master. When she switched Masters, your command disappeared."

Before Shirou could say anything to that, a blast of red light flashed out from where Kuzuki lay and struck Rin on the back of her head. Yuno leaped across the distance and slashed with her knife, ending the former school teacher.

"Is she ok?" asked Shirou. Rin had slumped back into Saber's arms, unconscious.

"I don't know, but we need to get her home." Saber replied anxiously and started to run.


	7. Chapter 7

When Shirou and Yuno finally made their way into the Emya residence, they found Saber sitting at Rin's bedside. The young magus was still unconscious from the blow she had received.

"Will she be ok?"

"I don't know: She looks fine, but Caster's master hit her with his command seals. I have no idea what sort of damage that did."

"I wish I was a better magus!" Shirou slumped to the floor and put his head into his hands. Yuno stood awkwardly next to him. "Are there any other magi in Fuyuko city?" She asked tentatively.

"Not that I know of" Shirou shook his head.

Saber stood up and paced, "I think there might be.. I have a faint memory..."

"Who?"

"Sakura."

"Sakura?" Shirou asked, incredulous.

"I'll go get her. You stay with Rin" Yuno said to Shirou, "Don't worry, I'll be back as fast as I can."

Saber quirked an eyebrow at Yuno's solicitousness, '_She's up to something'_. "I think Shirou should be the one to get Sakura - he knows her better, after all."

Yuno frowned, then nodded.

FSD*FSD

Shirou pounded on the Matou's door, '_I hope she's here'_ He had tried calling, but Sakura hadn't picked up her phone. It was late to be visiting unannounced, but he was desperate.

Finally, after a good ten minutes, the huge door creaked open, revealing Sakura, who looked extremely incongruous standing in the doorway to that dark, dank, house. "Sempai!" her face lit up, "What are you doing here so late at night? Don't you know that it's dangerous out? lots of people have been attacked lately."

"I need your help. Tohsaka has been hurt, and I think you're the only one that can help her."

Sakura's lips tightened into a thin line, "I'm not a doctor. You should take her to the hospital."

"Sakura.. You're the only one that can help" Shirou pleaded, "She was injured by magic."

"Magic?" Sakura looked incredulous.

Shirou nodded, not budging from his statement or the doorway.

Sakura looked inside for a moment, obviously torn. Seconds ticked by as she deliberated. Finally, "Ok. I'll come. I can't promise I will be able to help". '_I am better than her.'_ She slipped on her shoes before walking out with Shirou. "Tell me: What happened?"

"She got hit by a spell" Shirou began glancing at Sakura, to make sure that she was believing what he said. but surprisingly, almost incredibly, Sakura appeared completely unfazed by the mention of magic, '_maybe she IS a magus_', "It was a command seal. It hit her in the back of the head"

Sakura frowned, "That's not good. that could scramble her brain, or worse, fry her Magic Circuits"

"How is that worse?" asked Shirou incredulously.

"Passing on their Magic Circuits to their heir is very important for magical families. Even if Tohsaka's mind is gone, her family could still breed her, and pass on their heritage on to the next generation" there was a certain vindictiveness when Sakura said that, as if she wished to see it happen.

"That's horrible!' exploded Shirou, "How could you say such a thing!"

Sakura wilted, snapping out of her daydream, "I'm sorry, Sempai. I didn't mean to be horrid, but magical families are like that."

"Well, in that case I am glad Rin's an orphan!" They continued to walk for sometimes before Shirou asked, "Um, Sakura, is your family like that?"

Sakura nodded, without looking at Shirou.

Shirou continued walking, not certain what to say.

FSD*FSD

"I think most of the damage is to her Magical circuits" It was almost morning, and Sakura had been working on Rin most of the night, tracing damaged circuits and reconnecting them as best she could before they burnt out. "I don't know how much I was able to salvage"

Saber caught her as she tried to stand up. Shirou had fallen asleep while watching Sakura work, and Yuno had carried him to his room, before also going to bed, saying that she trusted Sakura to do her best.

Saber gave Sakura a cup of hot chocolate. "Thank you" She sat down at the dining room table. It didn't seem worth it to go to bed.

"How are you feeling?" asked Saber, "You pushed yourself pretty hard."

"I'll be ok. I'm used to pushing my limits" She smiled tiredly at the older man. "But I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do my best. Not given our history" She swayed slightly, almost falling asleep as she slurred, "I had to prove that I'm better than her."

Saber caught her before she collapsed, resting a hand on her back, "You should go to bed."

"Maybe. Maybe I should" Sakura staggered upright, with a little help from Saber and made her way to a guest room.

After Saber helped her into bed, he turned and asked, as he was leaving the room, "What's your history with Rin?"

"She's my sister" muttered Sakura sleepily as she turned over and fell asleep.

FSD*FSD

The next day, Sakura awoke at almost noon, when the aroma of cooking filled the house.

"Sorry I didn't help prepare lunch" she said, entering the kitchen, to find an odd sight: Saber, wearing Shirou's apron, was cooking. "Uhm, why are YOU cooking?"

Saber gave an exasperated sigh, "Yuno claims that unconscious people can sense those around them, and draw strength from having their friends close by, so she insists that Shirou sit with Rin."

"I thought Yuno didn't like Rin." Sakura usually had a good sense for people.

"I thought to so too, but Yuno is a little bit nuts, so it's hard to say."

"But why didn't _she_ cook lunch then?" Sakura came up to help Saber dump the stir fry from the pan into a serving bowl.

"She did" Scowled Saber, "For herself and Shirou. They are eating in Rin's room right now."

Sakura stifled a laugh at the Servant's exasperated expression. "I should go check up on her."

Rin was lying on her futon, still unconscious, while Shirou sat next to her, an empty plate at his side. Yuno was tidying up the serving bowls at the other side of the room. "Are you certain me sitting here is going to help?" Shirou asked, somewhat plaintively. "Oh, hi Sakura."

"Yes, having your friends around you when you are injured helps the healing process." Yuno replied sternly.

"But I need to train."

"Does Tohsaka-sempai have any other friends you could call to sit with her, I mean that we could trust in this situation?" Asked Sakura.

"I don't think she HAS any other friends." Sighed Shirou. "She keeps everybody at arms length with her 'school Idol' persona."

"In that case, you have to stay with her" Yuno said with a small shrug, "You could try holding her hand. That also helps."

Shirou rolled his eyes.

Sakura and Saber exchanged amused glances.

After checking on Rin, Sakura went home, promising to return later in the afternoon. When she did, she spent another hour with Rin, at the end of which, she stumbled out, looking tired, "She's awake, but don't tire her out."

Shirou darted in to see Rin, but was disappointed that she was tired and confused. "I don't have all the magical training that Tohsaka-sempai has, but I've done a lot of reading on magical healing, and I'm pretty good with magical circuits and stuff. According to what I have read, it will probably be several more days before she recovers her wits: I fixed all the magical damage that I can, but I don't know how much of the damage is permanent - if she doesn't start getting better in a few days, you should take her to a hospital" said Sakura. It was a very pleasant feeling, being the acknowledged expert on something, _'Is this how Rin feels all the time?'_

The next several days fell into a routine.

Sakura would come over and make breakfast, and then feed Rin. Shirou would spend the morning sparring with Saber, and afterwards he would make lunch for everybody and it would be his turn to feed Rin. After that, Shirou would be imprisoned in Rin's room by Yuno until dinner time. Rin spent most of the time asleep.

Saber looked tired a lot: with Rin unconscious much of the time, the prana he received from her was just a trickle.

"I think Rin is getting better" Shirou pronounced over dinner. Sakura had done the cooking, over Yuno's protests. "we exchanged a few words before she fell back asleep."

"See? I told you your presence would help." beamed Yuno. "tonight, you should sleep in her room as well".

"What?" Sakura and Shirou both cried out in indignation. "That's absurd."

"Don't you want your friend to get better quicker?" Asked Yuno calmly, eating her noodles.

"Yes" sighed Shirou.

'_Maybe'_ thought Sakura.

"Fine, I'll do it" agreed Shirou, "But I feel like I have been trapped in this building for the past week. I'm going to go out for a walk"

"I should go with you" Yuno put down her chopsticks and brushed off some non-existent crumbs from her lap.

"Sorry, Yuno, but I need some time away from people. I'm used to being on my own, so as much as I appreciate having all you guys here, it feels very crowded to me."

"Still..." said Yuno.

"This time of the evening, the streets are going to be filled with couples taking a stroll" Sakura came to Shirou's defense. "He'll be safe"

Yuno glanced at her Master Diary '_Next entry is him waking up. I guess nothing bad happens'_, "Fine."

Shirou grabbed his shoes "I'll be back soon" he waved

FSD*FSD

Shirou opened his eyes groggily. '_This isn't home'_ He was lying on a western style bed, and a rather ornate one at that. The room looked pretty fancy as well. Shirou sat up "Hello? anybody here?"

"Hello, Ni-san" Illya walked into the room, "I hope you are decent. I wouldn't want to walk in on you as you are changing, or something."

"Uhm, I don't have any other clothes with me." Shirou replied, confused.

"Oh, well, it's just something I always wanted to be able to say" Illya reply airily. "Are you well?"

"I guess. Why am I here?" Shirou got up off the bed and took a cautious stance.

"Oh, you are such a kidder, Oni-san" Illya smiled, "You're here to help me win the Grail War."

"What? Why? And why do you keep referring to me as your brother. Did you know my family, from before the fire?" Shirou asked hopefully.

"Let's go down to the Dining Hall - we can have some milk and cookies." Illya turned and motioned for Shirou to follow, "And don't try anything funny, or Berserker will have to punish you."

Shirou caught sight of a huge man out of the corner of his eye for just a moment.

"Coming"

FSD*FSD

"Where's Shirou?" Yuno confronted Sakura. '_The Master Diary said he is going to be fine. So why isn't he home yet?'_ She was starting to panic

"I don't know. He isn't back yet?" Sakura frowned. It was getting late.

"No, he isn't. It was your idea to let him go wandering around on his own, so I'm going to hold you responsible if something happened to him."

"What? It was Shirou's idea." Sakura replied.

"Saber!" Yuno called out, "Please come give me a hand."

The other Servant came in, looking somewhat ragged, "I heard. but unless we know where the idiot is, there's not much we can do."

"Sakura, can you cast a tracing spell?" Yuno demanded.

"I wish I could. There's a way to do it with the Matou magic, but I never learned how. Grandfather might be able to, though."

"No. I don't think that's a good idea" For some reason, getting the elder Matou involved filled Saber with dread.

"Lets think about who our suspects are, in that case" replied Sakura.

"We have seen Lancer. When I fought him, he seemed like a very straightforward person, who wouldn't resort to kidnapping, but his master may be the underhanded sort, from what he said at the time" Yuno paced daintily as she spoke. "But the same is true of Archer. Her master looked like a thug"

"Don't forget, Berserker's master - Illya - she seemed to have a personal interest in Shirou." Saber volunteered.

It was then that Yuno's phone buzzed. She glanced down at her Master Diary "Shirou's been taken by Illya."

"Well, that settles that. He's been kidnapped by the crazy fangirl" Saber poured himself a cup of tea.

"Will you help me rescue him?" Yuno asked the two others.

"Yes, of course" Sakura nodded.

Saber finished his tea, and set the cup back down gently with a sigh. He carefully wiped his mouth with a napkin. "I guess I might as well."

"Don't act that way!" Sakura scolded gently, "He's your friend also."

Saber gave her a bemused look, "Actually, he's my competitor. But I'm not certain that I want the prize," '_from what I recall, the grail is a scam, and doesn't actually grant wishes',_ "so I might as well get what enjoyment I can out of my time here. Besides, Rin will be annoyed if I let her little boyfriend get hurt."

"They're not like that!" exploded Sakura.

Saber quirked an eyebrow. "Let's go. It's a long way to the Einzbern mansion."

FSD*FSD

"I am not going to wear that!" Shirou said, exasperated. His arms were full with a full clothing ensamble - pants, shirt, vest, suit and overcoat. They were all of very high quality, but rather outdated. it was the sort of thing that a wealthy Victorian gentleman might wear.

"But why not? You will look quite dashing in it." replied Illya. The two were back in the room that Shirou had woken up in, after Illya had led Shirou down to the extremely large, extremely ornate dining hall, where one of Illya's maids had served them a plate of oatmeal cookies (Illya did not like chocolate chips) and milk. When they returned to the bedroom, the other maid had brought them the clothes.

"I thought you wanted me to help you win the Holy Grail war. What does this" Shirou plopped the clothes onto the bed, "have to do with that?"

"Oni-san, you have to look the part. You have to match me after all." replied Illya.

"I'm not a doll to play dress up with!" replied Shirou in exasperation. He sighed "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell, but I don't even know where I am!"

Illya's face lit up and she grabbed Shirou's arm, "come on, I will show you around the mansion. It really is a grand place." She clutched the arm tight to her chest as she led him around the huge building.

FSD*FSD

"I didn't know that there was this much forest here." Sakura commented. The three rescuers had been walking through the park-like woods leading up to the Einzbern Mansion, and there was at least a mile of forest. Along the way, they had came across an abandoned cottage. It was unlocked, so they were using it to take a break and to plan strategy.

"What I want to know is what's the plan. If Illya has Hercules as Berserker, we can't face him head on."

"I think I could take him, if I had more prana" Saber said calmly.

Yuno gave him a look, "You think so? Hercules is one of the most famous heroes ever, and I don't think I've ever even heard of you."

Saber just shrugged "I've made a habit of getting into fights with people who are more powerful than me and winning. But it's irrelevant, because I need to be at full capacity for prana."

"I have 38 Magic Circuits. They aren't as good as Tohsaka's, but I could provide you with enough manna, if you transfer you contract to me." Sakura volunteered.

"That would help" Saber nodded thoughtfully, "but it will still take several days for me to reach full capacity.

"That's not acceptable. There is no telling what that crazy girl will do to Shirou during that time" Yuno looked agitated. "We need to rescue him tonight. Maybe we can wait for Illya to go Servant hunting, and we can sneak in while she's out."

"That might work, but I want a back up plan, in case Berserker surprises us." Saber replied stubbornly.

"You just want to let Shirou die!" Yuno cried out.

"Not anymore."

"What do you mean, not anymore?"

"Saber, there is a way I can provide you with more prana." Sakura said quietly, biting her lip. "There is a tantric ritual that I read about..."

"Are you certain you want to go through with that?" asked Saber.

Sakura nodded, blushing. Yuno looked confused "What is a tantric..."

"It involves sex" stated Saber calmly as Sakura turned crimson.

Yuno walked into the other room and shut the door, stunned. "Sex can make you more powerful? Who knew?"

The next half hour was very awkward. Yuno had nowhere to go, but if she sat quietly, she could hear... noises... from the other room. Very distracting noises. '_I need to rescue Shirou. That crazy little girl better not be doing something to my Master_.' Yuno paused, '_Shirou wouldn't do that. He's faithful. He wouldn't just jump in the sack with some stalker girl. Besides she's underage.' _Yuno wasn't quite certain why she cared, but it felt very important.

When Sakura and Saber finally came out, both acted as if nothing had happened, though Sakura refused to meet Yuno's eyes or even look at Saber. '_I did it for Sempai. it's not a betrayal.' _In a way, this had been her first time: SHE had initiated it, because SHE had wanted to. But the experience had left her very confused, about what she felt and about what she wanted.

FSD*FSD

"Ok, there she goes" whispered Yuno.

"Where's Berserker?" Sakura felt that something was wrong.

"Incorporeal. If we were close enough to sense him, then he could sense Saber" was the pink haired Assassins reply. "Give them ten minutes, and then lets go." Yuno pulled out her phone to see if there was anything new on Shirou. There wasn't.

Waiting those last few minutes was difficult. Even Saber shifted from foot to foot a couple of times.

"The coast is clear. Lets go!" Yuno darted forwards, followed by the other two. They went in through the main door, only to find themselves in a vast entryway, with a stair running up the far side to the second floor, and a balcony that ran along both sides. And there were a half dozen doors on the ground floor as well.

"Which way now, oh leader?" Saber asked.

Yuno glanced left and right, grimacing. She glanced at her Master Diary,

_6:45 Shirou glances out the window towards Fuyuko City_

"He's upstairs!"

They were halfway across the ballroom sized foyer when Illya stepped out onto the top of the stairs. "Haven't you three heard of Bounded Fields? You are so predictable. You fell into my trap! All I had to do was send out one of my maids dressed as me!" She laughed. "Now, Berserker, kill them!" The giant man materialized next to her.

"No, Illya, stop!" Shirou ran up from a second floor corridor as Hercules launched himself down at the intruders.

Saber leaped forward to engage the unstoppable servant, sword flashing.

"Oh, I still want to spend more time with my oni-san, so they will just have to die."

'_Thank you for making this simple, Illya-chan'_ Yuno smiled. Now she wouldn't have to deal with Shirou's silly request not to hurt people.

Shirou leaped over the banister to land behind Hercules, yelling, "Yuno, please don't hurt Illya!"

'_Or not'_ sighed Assassin.

As Saber and and Berserker fought, Shirou did his best to help. Saber didn't try to stop the powerful blows from Berserker's club sword. Instead he dodged, darting in at the last moment to slash as Berserker's flank. And when he did, Shirou would nip at Berserker's side, distracting him. But it was all Shirou could do to keep from getting hit by Hercules, so he wasn't certain if he was doing any good.

"Ow" Shirou staggered up from the floor, holding is side. He thrown himself backwards to avoid having his body removed from his head by Berserker's rock slab, but the impact with the floor was painful.

Meanwhile, Illya had started to glow, her skin covered in runes, as spears of light flashed from her hands. Sakura and Yuno dodged. Sakura blocked the bolts of light with a shield of inky black. Neither Magus was terribly skilled, but Illya's almost unlimited supply of prana was telling. She danced and giggled as she cast bolts of devastating energy at Sakura, who had to be more frugal as she blocked spell after spell.

Yuno jumped up to the second floor balcony and darted to attack Illya from behind, forcing the homunculus to jump down to the first floor as she blasted Yuno with a flash of light that threw her across the room.

Shirou just barely ducked a blow from Berserker. As he did, Saber leaped forward and impaled a sword into Hercules chest. The huge man froze for a moment, before continuing on with his attack as if he hadn't just received a mortal wound, back handing Saber into a wall.

As soon as Saber hit, he had a bow in his a hands, and a moment later, an arrow flew to hit Hercules in the back. Hercules turned back to Saber, only to have Shirou chop at his achilles tendon.

"I am the bone of my sword.  
Steel is my body, and fire is my blood.  
I have created over a thousand blades.  
Unknown to death. Nor known to life.  
Have withstood pain to create many weapons.  
Yet, those hands will never hold anything.  
So as I pray, "Unlimited Blade Works."

Sabers Reality Marble swelled out and then collapsed, swallowing up Berserker and Shirou as well as him.

'_Where are we?'_ Shirou looked at Berserker's confusion, '_Whatever it is, it's Saber's doing._' Before he could do anything, swords came down like a steel rain, impaling the berserk Servant.

"That's two" Saber Traced another bow and a sword arrow, "He's got 10 more lives" He released the broken Phantasm just as Hercules recovered. The arrow caught him in the leg, as he dodged at the last possible instant. It exploded on contact, taking his leg off at the knee.

"That's three"

Yuno saw Shirou disappear, along with Berserker and Saber, but her link with him was still there, so she didn't pay any mind to it, instead concentrating on attacking Illya. She was using her superior speed to dart in and slash at the insanely overpowered magus, while Sakura cautiously sent small blasts of what looked like black ink at her. Except that the ink corroded anything it hit, bubbling like acid for a moment before fading away.

Illya just smiled in glee, easily fending off the attacks.

'_This is not working_' Yuno darted behind a column and waited, assessing the situation.

Seeing that she was now facing only one opponent, Illya poured all her spells at Sakura. The purple haired girl was forced to go completely on the defensive, casting as fast she could just to deflect Illya's attacks.

But then something happened - Sakura's eyes grew black, and she became surrounded in a black aura. Tentacles of black reached out for Illya.

Illya, caught up in the moment, continued to press her advantage. She started to circle Sakura, casting bolts of energy from different directions, trying to force Sakura off balance, as at the same time the black tentacles started to siphon off some of the light from her.

'_She's forgotten about me'_ Yuno wondered, '_I guess nobody ever taught her how to fight'_ Illya had reached a point where she had her back to the Assassin. '_One slash across the back of the neck and she's dead._' Yuno was about to leap out and slay her enemy when she paused, '_but that will make Shirou upset.'_

At that moment, one of Illya's spells got through Sakura's defense, slashing open her stomach. The purple haired girl collapsed in a scream of pain, trying to hold her stomach together with her hands. Inky blood sprayed everywhere through her splayed fingers.

'_Shit!' _Yuno darted forward and plunged her knife up into Illya's heart from behind. The homunculus gave one startled flinch before exploding in a ball of light.

"Eleven!" Yelled Saber as he jumped away from Berserker. Shirou threw himself into a roll as the stone sword almost hit him. He staggered back up, '_I can't do this too much longer!' _Even with the reinforced speed, he was barely able to keep from getting hit, and he was becoming exhausted. his legs were shaking, and he hurt all over.

Seeing his momentary distraction, Hercules quickly reversed his sword strike. It grazed Shirou, knocking him down.

"Watch out!" Saber darted forward, raising his sword in a roof block, to keep the stone sword from splitting Shirou in two on the return strike.

"Aarg!" Saber staggered back - the block had been a little too high, and the stone sword had smashed off his sword, along with his sword hand. He collapsed, clutching the stump of his right hand. The World of Swords wavered, starting to collapse.

'_Oh, no!_' Shirou looked at Saber, '_But anything he can do, I can too!_' He concentrated, pushing the boundaries of the Reality Marble back into place. '_this is my world as much as his, and here', _"we control reality!"

Berserker took a step forward to slash at Shirou, as the younger warrior darted forward. But as Hercules put his foot down on the solid ground, it sank into it, as if it was empty air. the Heroic Spirit recovered his balance in an instant, but his sword hit the ground instead of Shirou. Hercules was open just for a moment, but it was enough: Using the last of his flagging strength, the hero wannabe slashed down, taking off berserkers head.

"Twelve" muttered Saber, and the Reality Marble collapsed.

As the three men spilled back into the mansion, they were confronted with Sakura lying in the middle of a seething pool of blackness that bubbled and lashed out at anything that approached, dissolving it. The pool had already dissolved several support pillars, and the walls were crumbling as they bowed in.

"I have no idea what to do here." Yuno cried out, holding her arm as if in pain, "can we just leave her like this?"

"No, we have to help her!" Shirou looked around, hoping to find inspiration. "what can we do?"

Saber grimaced as he tied off the tourniquet around his wrist. '_some help you are, novice'_ , "I got this. Step back". He stepped right to the edge of the blackness, and released his reality marble for one last time.

Saber, Sakura, and the pool of corruption disappeared.

And the roof collapsed.

Chapter end

As always, reviews are appreciated


	8. Chapter 8

"Are you certain we shouldn't wait a little longer?" Shirou asked for the third (or maybe twenty third) time.

"We waited all night. They aren't coming back." Yuno leaned on Shirou as they walked back from the Einzbern mansion. Her arm was in an improvised sling. "We need to move on".

"I know you don't care about them, but they were, are my friends" Shirou replied angrily. He was bruised, and his clothes were torn in a few places, but miraculously, nothing was broken.

"That's not true" countered Yuno. As she said it, she was surprised at the words_.'I must be really tired' , _ "I.. They were nice to me, and that's something that.. It's... I liked it. But sometimes people, even good people die. You just have to accept it. Worry about those that are most important to you." Yuno suddenly had an image of her parents, lying dead in the cage. _'Did I do that?'_

"Everybody is important!" countered Shirou.

"Well then, it sucks to be you, because you can't save everybody" Yuno replied, before her eyes got wide at what she had said.

Shirou pushed off from her and walked off ahead.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

"Yes, you did" Shirou stalked off, with Yuno trailing behind.

FSD*FSD

"Hey, how are you doing?" Shirou came into Rin's room, carrying a breakfast tray. Tohsaka was sitting in bed, propped up with a couple of pillows.

"Not so good" She tried to look poised, but instead just appeared wan and tired. There were bags under her eyes, and she looked pale. She was still sleeping most of the day. It had been two days since Shirou was rescued from Illya and Berserker, and this was the first time that Rin was lucid enough to hold a conversation. "I can't feel my Magic circuits, and my eyes swim if I even turn my head too fast!"

Shirou set the tray down on her lap. "Sakura said that she had done as much as she could, and the rest will just take time", '_I hope. she also said that it may never heal'_

"Where is Sakura? I seem to recall her being here when we first got back."

Shirou's face fell, and he looked down at the floor, "Sakura's dead. She died rescuing me when I got myself kidnapped by Illya. And Saber tried to save her, but I think he's gone too." Shirou waited for the explosion of anger to come from Rin. When nothing came, he looked up. Rin looked miserable. She was trying desperately to maintain her composure, but tears were leaking from her eyes.

Shirou pushed the breakfast tray aside and sat down on the futon next to her and enveloped her in a hug. He held her while she cried quietly.

FSD*FSD

Sleep wouldn't come. Shirou lay in bed, trying to fall asleep, but whenever he closed his eyes, he kept seeing Sakura lying in a pool of her own blood. Except it hadn't been blood - it was some sort of black ichor. She had been a younger sister to him. He was supposed to look out for her, not the other way around. And now she was gone.

Shirou sighed and rolled over. He felt it worst in the the mornings, when there was no Sakura to wake him and cook breakfast with. Except now Yuno cooked breakfast, which made everything that much weirder. Shirou flopped onto his back.

The door to his room slid open without any knock. "Will you go to SLEEP!" hissed Yuno. "You are keeping the whole house up!". That wasn't exactly true. Rin was fast asleep. But Rin's room was at the far end of the corridor, and she didn't have a mental bond with a guilt stricken Master. _'And I thought mental bleed over was supposed to go from the Servant to the Master, not the other way around. I guess Shirou's mind is stronger than most people's.' _Yuno examined her master as he sat, sleep tousled, on his futon, before looking away in embarrassment.

"Sorry, I'm just still thinking about what happened at the mansion."

Yuno sighed, "Come on, I'll make you some hot chocolate and you can brood in the dining room"

"You don't have to..."

"You're my Master, and I have to keep you safe." Yuno replied with a bright smile hiding her frustration.

"Even from insomnia?"

"Whatever it takes."

FSD*FSD

Yuno sighed as she lay back down. She flipped open her Master Diary to check up on Shirou, _'Good, that dufus is asleep.'_ She had sat with him as he drank his hot coco and listened to him prattle on about the dead girl for HOURS. Or it had felt that way. It was a good thing that as a Servant, she didn't need more than an hour or two of sleep.

She was just rolling over to get comfortable when the image of Sakura dying popped into Yuno's head again. It had been doing that a lot, which was odd. She had seen, had personally killed, a surprising number of people. But this had bothered her. Last night she had been the one to lie awake, replaying the fight, trying to think of what she could have done differently. _'It's probably coming from Shirou. He's too sentimental. He needs to get past this. It's done.'_

FSD*FSD

The next few days passed quietly. Shirou and Yuno took turns cooking, and when Fujimura came by to cadge a meal, the household appeared normal, if somewhat subdued. The Tiger could tell that something was off, but she just chalked it up to the the gas leak at the school which had injured so many students. Dealing with that - getting new teaching materials, meeting with the reconstruction committee, visiting the students in the hospital - was also the reason she was never able to stay long.

Slowly, Rin regained her strength, to the point that she could walk around the house. Her magic, on the other hand, wasn't improving as quickly.

"This is so frustrating! I had more prana than this when I was a child!" Rin threw herself onto a couch. "I feel so useless!"

Yuno walked in from the kitchen - it was her turn to cook lunch, and Shirou was out in the dojo practicing, "Never give up. As long as you're alive, there is still hope." She wiped her hands on a towel and hung it up, "You just need to focus on something that will give your life meaning." '_Not that Shirou's life goals are so good - he's going to get himself killed, and for what? To help some people, who are probably jerks, out?'_

"Like what? Magic was my purpose." Rin's response snapped Yuno out of her contemplation of her Master's flaws. _'Well, they are more foibles than flaws._'

Yuno shook off her paralysis, and plastered a plastic smile on her face "You could dedicate your life to helping others."

"Don't mock me, Assassin" Rin snarled.

"Or how about finding a person to love and dedicating your life to him?" Yuno asked.

"Me? a housewife? You have to be kidding me!" Rin laughed, "Or are you still trying to play matchmaker with Shirou and me?" she looked questioningly at Yuno. "You are, aren't you? What's in it for you?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about. I am most definitely am NOT playing matchmaker!"

"Hey, lunch smells good" Shirou came in, a towel wrapped around his shoulders.

Rin scowled, "Maybe I should learn to cook. According to your Servant, that's all I'm good for now!"

"What? Hey, what brought that on?" asked a befuddled Shirou.

"I'm The Second Owner of Fuyuki City, but how can I keep track of the magical goings on if I barely have any magic circuits to draw on? How am I supposed to keep the city safe from wandering Yoma or Dead Apostles?"

"I'll help: you got injured helping me, so I figure it's my responsibility to help fix this." Shirou replied with a shrug, as if it was the only logical answer.

"And how do you propose to do that? You have even fewer magic circuits, and absolutely no skill what so ever!" Rin was venomous: she really didn't handle weakness well.

"I guess I could open up a magical supply shop. That way, all the Magi in the area would end up coming by, and I could keep an eye on them, you know hear all the goings on and stuff."

"That's the stupidest thing I've hear! Magi don't gossip!" Rin took a deep breath and forced herself to relax. "Thank you for offering to help, but that's just ONE of the things bothering me. for another, I can pretty much kiss my chances of going to the Clocktower goodby now. And that you can't do anything to help with"

Shirou nodded morosely, '_This isn't how it's supposed to be. Everybody is getting injured helping me.'_

There wasn't much conversation as the food was eaten. The atmosphere was depressed, as usual. The waves of guilt were almost palpably radiating off of Shirou. '_If I had stayed with Sakura instead __of show-boating with Saber, I could have saved her'_

Rin had moved from grief at Sakura's death, to anger that Shirou had let it happen, to guilt as well '_If I hadn't been an invalid, it would have been me rescuing Shirou instead of my sister. And she would be safe.'_

Yuno glanced at the other two occupants of the room, their dead eyes not seeing anything around them, '_Oh, for goodness sake! Am I the only one who's not an emotional basket case here?'_ "Shirou, after lunch, I'd like it if you showed me around the city a little bit."

"Oh? Why"

Yuno shrugged nonchalantly, "we all could use a little change of scenery. I don't know about you, but I am going stir crazy."

"I guess that makes sense." Shirou agreed. _'A change of scenery would be a good idea. with no school, I've been sitting here, doing nothing but wallowing in misery. I need to DO something_' "Actually, It's a really good idea!"

Despite it being Yuno's idea, it took her a surprisingly long time to get ready, and when she came out, she was wearing the staid blue and white dress that she had borrowed before, "All of my cloths are too worn" was all she said by way of explanation.

"That's ok, that dress looks good on you" Shirou replied. '_When she isn't being air headed or murderous, she's actually kind of pretty.'_

Rin rolled her eyes '_Yup, she's trying to get me jealous'_ The surprising thing was that despite the obviousness of the plan, it was working, if only just a little, '_When I get better, I'll take Shirou into town.'_

As Shirou and Yuno walked down to the bus stop, Yuno kept up a line of chatter, "I saw an advertisement for an aquarium we could start there" _'I like aquariums. or was it Yuki?'_ A pang of guilt went through Yuno that she couldn't even remember what Yuki liked to do. She absent mindedly took Shiurou's hand, just for a moment, just to reassure herself that he was still there.

Shirou smiled, "Thank you for looking after me so well" As Yuno took a seat at the bus stop, he went and got a pair of sodas, "I am sorry for being rude to you, back after the fight. What you said.. It was tough to hear, but I think you're right." He gave Yuno one of the sodas and sat down next to her. "You are a good friend."

Yuno smiled beatifically, "And I am sorry for hurting your feelings. I sometimes speak without thinking. I don't know why - I didn't used to be that way." She took a sip, "But with the Master-Servant bond, I think I can better understand who you are. It makes me very relaxed around you." Yuno realized with a bit of a shock that it was true. Despite the Holy Grail war and everything else, she was content. Despite her missing memories of the past_ 'Or maybe because of them...'_

They didn't talk much as they got onto the bus, and with the rocking motion, Shirou dozed off. He woke up a few minutes later to find Yuno leaning against his shoulder.

After the aquarium, Shirou showed Yuno to the shopping district, and they wandered through several stores

"Oh, look!" Yuno held up a dangly thing. They were in a jewelry store catering to teen girls.

"What is that? An earring?" Shirou asked awkwardly. He had never been inside this gaudy shop before, and wasn't terribly happy to be there now.

"No, silly, it's a cellphone fob. Here. Buy it for me?" Yuno smiled winningly up at the redhead.

Shirou smiled, "I guess."

As they walked out of the store, he commented,"You know, the people around us probably think we're on a date."

Yuno froze.

"No!" and ran.

"What?" Shirou looked confused, then ran after her, '_what did I say?'_

It was already sunset when Shirou finally caught up to his Servant at the top of the bridge over Fuyuki River. Yuno stood there, staring out over the water. "Are you ok? did I say something wrong?" He came up behind the pink haired girl. They stood that way for several moments, with Yuno shoulder's hunched up, not looking at Shirou, while Shirou stood next to her, waiting for her to say what was bothering her.

"No. No you didn't" Yuno took a deep breath and turned to face Shirou, "Shirou I think I am in love with you."

"But.. I thought... Yuki.." Shirou replied, confused.

"Yuki... died a long time ago. I am not certain if I really loved him or not, but It has been so long, that I don't even remember what he looked like. I just said that he was my goal because I was scared, I didn't know what else to do or who else I could be." Yuno looked unusually serious, and not her usual air headed public persona, "I have been trying to avoid it for a while, even trying to get Rin to go for you, but I love you. You take care of people, even people like me. I know that even though you don't approve of everything I am, you nevertheless won't abandon me. You're the first person I could really trust!"

Shirou nodded dumbly.

"Can I ask you something?" Asked Yuno.

"Yes?"

"Can you tell me that you love me too. It doesn't have to be the truth, but I would like to hear it." There was a desperate note in her voice that Shirou had never heard before.

"NO! I'm not going to lie about something like that". He turned away from Yuno, "If you lie about that, then it has no meaning." He and Yuno started walking. "You can't have a lasting relationship without trust."

"I'm a Servant. I'm not certain how lasting a relationship we're going to have" A small frown slipping past her mask was the only sign of her roiling anger, at the situation, at her weakness, and at Shirou's bullheaded insensitivity..

"I.. you're a friend, and I trust and rely on you, but I don't know if I love you." Shirou kept walking. _'What do I do? this is so... I'm no Shinji - I'm not the sort of guy who attracts girls. I have no idea what I should say to her!'_ They had just come off the bridge and into the industrial district on the other side when Yuno suddenly pushed Shirou off the sidewalk.

"What?"

THUNK

A crossbow bolt bolt stuck into the concrete where Shirou had been a moment before. Yuno darted towards a warehouse overlooking the sidewalk.

Shirou darted for cover, prana pouring to his legs. '_Archer again? Where is she?'_

He had just made it behind a forklift before another crossbow bolt struck it with unnatural force, knocking the heavy machinery into him. Shirou barely had time to push off of it, using his prana reinforced muscles to jump clear from under the vehicle.

Shirou ducked under the forklift's cab and looked around_, 'I don't see her thuggish master. Maybe he decided his gun would attract the cops.'_ He peeked up at the roof of the warehouse, where the crossbow bolt had come from. Yuno was engaging in melee combat with Archer.

'_She's going to get killed!'_ Yuno was again staggering under the effects of 'Holy Path to Victory'. Shirou took a deep breath and concentrated, he had never tried something like this before, but he HAD been on the archery team. He Traced a bow.

He lined up the shot and fired. As usual, his aim was perfect. The arrow raced through the air, on target for Archer's chest.

And she batted it aside easily with her rapier.

Yuno used the opportunity to get out of range of Archer's rapier and collect herself. Quick as he could, Shirou traced and fired another arrow. And another. Archer deflected each one easily, but she was distracted from fighting Yuno, who darted in and stabbed at Archer, giving her a light cut where two piece of armor met.

Archer retreated towards the middle of the roof, to put the edge of the building between her and Shioru's arrows, but Yuno darted in and slashed at her. The pink haired Servant always managed to be at just the right spot to prevent Archer form repositioning.

Shirou climbed up on top of the forklift's cab and continued shooting._ 'I hope this is doing more to annoy Archer than it is distracting Yuno!'_ But he didn't stop - he had to do SOMETHING. He couldn't let his Servant fight all by herself.

Archer growled in frustration. Her opponents were like rats snapping a wolf. If she could just get a moment to take a clear shot at one of them! She turned and leaped off the building. As she fell through the air, she used her free hand to pull around her crossbow and yelled "Divine Retribution" as she fired a glowing bolt of white light at Shirou.

Shirou tried to dodge, but it was too fast. He barely managed to move before the quarrel struck him in the shoulder, throwing him off of the forklift, to the ground.

"Shirou!" Yuno yelled in a panic, leaping to attack Archer. Archer fought defensively, with a self satisfied half smile on her face, as she waited to Assassin to dissipate.

If she hadn't been wearing heavy armor, Shirou's falchion would have cleaved her from shoulder to waist.

The wound in his shoulder hurt, but Shirou was used to pain. It was an old friend. He wasn't going to let Yuno get killed for a trivial reason such as that.

"How? You should be dead!" Archer leaped back, blocking Shirou's next strike as she danced away from Yuno's attack, "Divine Retribution will slay any that oppress their fellow man. Only a true paladin can withstand it." Her eyes got big as she blocked Yuno and let Shirou's attack skitter across her armor, "But your Servant is Assassin! How?"

"Haven't you heard that opposites attract?' Quipped Yuno as she again darted in, but stumbled under the effect of Holy Path To Victory. As Assassin raised her sword to strike her down, Shirou leaped forward.

"You aren't going to hurt her unless you go through me!" He took a fighting stance, a falchion in each hand, though the one in his right arm quivered from the injury to his shoulder.

Archer stood facing off against him. Yuno got back up to her feet.

Archer concentrated, and her 'Holy Path to Victory' aura intensified, radiating out from her body like a bright light. Yuno staggered, looking confused and slightly ill, but Shirou stood resolutely in front of her to defend her, like a knight in some fairy tail. He was unaffected by the glow

Archer lowered her sword. "My name is Jeanne d'Arc." she pronounced haughtily. "I will not fight a true Paladin of God." she stared at Shirou. He stared back. Yuno started to circle for a better position, but Shirou waved her back.

"In that case, how about we make an alliance? We can work together to prevent any innocents from getting killed in this foolish war."

"That will not be possible. My Master has used a command seal to order me to kill all those he targets. And he has commanded me to kill you." She stood glaring at Shirou for a moment, before nodding once decisively, "It is unfortunate that Assassin received such a Master, while I am shackled to one who is himself an assassin. May God be with you" and dissolved into sparkles of light.

"What just happened?" Shirou asked, confused.

"I think she just returned to the Throne of Heroes or went into the Grail or something. All I know is that she is no longer a Servant." Yuno walked over to Shirou and started checking his injury, "Why would she do that?" she was clearly flummoxed.

"I guess she decided that there was something more important than winning." Shirou held still while Yuno cut a strip from the bottom of her skirt to use as a makeshift bandage.

"Maybe there is" sighed Yuno, looking up into Shirou's face from just inches away. They froze, staying like that, not certain what to do next. Shirou leaned forward slightly.

"Ah, how cute. Two love birds cooing to each other" Yuno leaped away from Shirou, and a knife appeared in her hand. Shirou traced a falchion. Standing in front of them was a man in ridiculous gold armor, "I just came to see how my King of Knights was getting on, when what do I see but her dissolve into nothingness! I demand to know what you did to my queen!" Gilgamesh sounded annoyed, a rare feat for him.

"Who are you?" asked Shirou.

A circle of light appeared and a sword shot out, narrowly missing Shirou as he threw himself to one side.

"I ask the questions, worm. How did you manage to defeat a Servant leagues beyond your ability level?"

Yuno was cautiously trying to circle behind the Golden Knight. She threw herself behind a stack of crates as another circle of light formed and shot a sword at her.

"Yuno says that she went back to the Throne of Heroes." Shirou replied, trying to distract the bling'ed out Servant.

"Don't lie to me. That's not possible. She would never give up. Her fighting spirit is what I love about her."

"I'm not. That's all I know" Shirou replied, tracing the sword that had been shot at him - Isten Kardja, Attila the Hun's sword.

"And what of the other one?"

"What other one?" Shirou had no clue what the gold plated maniac was talking about, but he figured that as long as he was talking, he wasn't attacking. Shirou shifted to a better position as Yuno climbed up on top of the stack of crates behind the golden knight.

"The other one that disappeared, idiot. Is he dead or not?" The knights eyes narrowed "return that at once! That does not belong to you!" He gestured at the sword in Shirou's hand. Multiple circles of light appeared, and swords projected from each one.

Shirou traced each one as it appeared.

Yuno glanced down at her Master Diary

'Shirou_ stands up to Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh opens the Gates of Babylon, Shirou dodges some, but is then skewered_

_BAD END'_

'_What if I stab him in the back while he is distracted with Shirou?_' Her cell phone buzzed, and the entry now read the same, but now had added to it "_Yuno dies"_

'_But if I use my full strength, then Deux ex Machina will realize that I am here, and he will expel me, or worse!'_

Meanwhile, Shirou's mind buzzed as he tried to find some way out of his predicament. '_I need to call up that sword-world that Saber had_' Shirou tried to recall how it felt to use the Reality Marble.

"I am the bone of my sword

Steel is my body and fire is my blood "

"I will not have an impudent whelp ignoring my commands!" Gilgamesh shot a barrage of of swords at Shirou, which were intercepted in the air by swords shooting out of the air above Shirou. Shirou gasped for breath at the massive amount of prana required. Shards of metal and broken swords littered the ground for a moment before fading away.

The King scowled, "So you want to play, little thief?" and another barrage shot out. Again Shirou blocked it, but he was now staggering, barely able to stand. "If you enjoy my treasures so much, I will give you the honor of being killed by the greatest one, Ea the Sword of Rupture." Gilgamesh pulled from the gate of Babylon the red and black drill-like sword. As he lifted it up, it began to spin, tearing at the very fabric of reality.

As he raised it to strike down the young magus before him, a small ball of energy, the size of a marble, shot out at him from the top of the crates. He spun, blocking with Ea.

The resulting explosion knocked him out of sight, and sprayed gravel in all directions, leaving a ten foot deep crater.

Before Gilgamesh could recover, Yuno dropped off the crates and clutched her stomach, _'Oh god. I'm going to throw up.'_ For an instant, her entire body felt like it was being sucked into her bellybutton.

She forced herself to stand and scooped up a stunned and groggy Shirou, running for she was worth.

END

Please do review - I really appreciate it, but please LOG in first, so that I can reply - you guys have raised some good points, and I want to respond (especially RE Yuno's falling in love with Shirou. Trust me, I have a plan (Yeah, I know - famous last words))


	9. Chapter 9

"Where are we?" Shirou sat up groggily. He was sitting on a loading dock in a small alley, leaning against Yuno. At the end of the alley he could see numerous people walking to the shops and restaurants lining the street.

"You got pretty beat up by Gilgamesh. I managed to get you to safety, but this was as far as I could carry you without being seen." Yuno looked at her Master with concern. _'Whatever that sword was, it was tearing at the fabric of the universe! Maybe that will disguise a little divine magic?' _Yuno tried to feel if an omnipotent presence was observing her. Not that she would be able to sense Deux ex MAchina - he was nigh-omnipotent! She realized she was starting to hyperventilate, and took a a deep breath,_ 'I don't want to be forced out of this world. I CAN'T!'_ She glanced at her Master_._ Her... boyfriend. Though if she was honest with herself (something she rarely was) she wasn't certain what their relationship was anymore "Are you ok?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine. I think I just used too much prana. You said that guy was Gilgamesh? He's obviously a Servant."

"Except that we already met all seven Servants." Yuno frowned, "He did say that this Grail war seems to be broken. Maybe that was what he was referring to?"

Shirou hopped down to the ground, "Maybe. I think we should report this to Kirei - he's the overseer, so he will know what to do."

"Not tonight - You need to get some rest" Yuno took Shirou's arm, to help support him.

"I think you're right" Shirou smiled down at the pink haired girl at his side, "Thank you for all your help." She just smiled and hugged his arm.

By the time the got home, Rin was already asleep. "You sit here, I'll make dinner." Yuno lead Shirou to the couch.

"No, I'll help." Shirou got right back up and staggered to the kitchen.

Yuno shook her head in exasperation, "You need your rest. I will tie you to your bed, if I have to!" she scolded.

Shirou glared at her, "I appreciate that you care for me, but I can't just sit back and let other people work. It's not who I am."

"Fine," Yuno grabbed a chair and dragged it into the kitchen, "You sit there and tell me what to do." She looked mildly annoyed.

"Fine," Shirou collapsed onto the chair, looking mildly annoyed.

Dinner was a quiet affair, and a little awkward. Yuno's declaration earlier in the day had changed things between them, and Shirou wasn't certain how to act. Finally, after the meal was finished he stood up and bowed formally, "Thank you for dinner." Yuno smiled happily.

Later that night, after Shirou had gone to sleep, Yuno quietly slipped out of her room and out into the yard. She made her way to an out of the way area and began to dig. Once the hole was big enough, she pulled out a cell phone and dropped it in, and then covering it with the loose dirt.

She patted the dirt down and nodded in a satisfied way.

Yuno then slipped back into the house and went to sleep.

FSD*FSD

"YEAAH!" Shirou shot up out of bed. "What are you doing in my bed?" Shirou danced over to his chair and grabbed a pair of pants to hold in front of himself.

"Sleeping" replied Yuno muzzily, sitting up. Shirou tried to ignore the rather revealing negligee she was wearing.

"But why are you sleeping in MY room?"

"I explained yesterday - I love you, and I want to be with you, always and forever."

Shirou ran a hand through his hair in exasperation,_ 'It's too early in the morning to deal with this'_. He sighed, "We'll talk about this later."_ 'or maybe never, if I put a lock for my bedroom door'. _Shirou wasn't good at deal with complex emotional issues, such as pretty psychos who he wasn't certain how he felt about declaring their undying love for him. And then acting on it.

Shirou backed up out of the room, holding the pants in front of him as a shield.

FSD*FSD

"Why are we here?" Shirou asked.

"Because you wanted to report the extra servant to Kirei." Yuno replied as she loosened another screw holding the window in place. The two teens were crouching behind Kotomine Church, and Yuno was removing one of the basement windows. Shirou was surreptitiously glancing at Yuno, '_She IS pretty. Almost as pretty as Rin. But she has... issues'._ Shirou wasn't certain why he was even thinking about this. She was a Servant. In a few days or a few weeks at most, she would be gone from his life. But something about her... Her willingness to fight for what she thought was right, appealed to him. And he felt bad about not returning her feelings for him.

"No, I mean why are we sneaking in through the basement?"

Yuno set the window aside and handed the screwdriver back to Shirou, who let the projected tool dissolve back into nothing., "Because I checked my True Love Diary" She held up her cellphone before slipping it back into her pocket, "and it said that if we went through the front door, we would die." She slipped inside.

Shirou sighed in frustration and followed.

"What's that smell?" the basement was dank, which was not unexpected, but there was also a sickly sweet smell. The building was on a slight incline, so while the back of the basement was above ground, most of it wasn't. In the resulting gloom, Shirou couldn't make out the source of the smell, or much of anything else. He tried to breath shallowly - the smell made him want to gag. "This place is a lot bigger than I would have expected!" it was more of a catacomb than a basement. But it was also being used for storage. Shirou bit off an exclamation as he barked his shin on an emergency generator that sat abandoned in the middle of the floor.

"There's something over there" Yuno pointed at a side chamber, using her cell phone as a flashlight. Shirou swore under his breath as he pushed cans of gasoline out of his way to join Yuno. The two teens carefully crept into the room. It was apparently intended as a crypt - there were stone slabs to support a dozen coffins. But instead, they each had on them a cot, with a desiccated body strapped on, with an IV dripping fluids into it.

Shirou approached cautiously, overcoming his revulsion, "I think some of them are still alive!"

"Yeah, they are." Lancer stepped out from an adjoining chamber.

Yuno dropped into a fighting stance. Shirou stepped away from the body to get more room to maneuver, "If we fight in here, we're going to end up killing them!"

"That would probably be for the best, their souls are dead already." Replied Lancer, looking tired, "Though I'm not here to fight you."

"You're not?" Asked Shirou at the same time as Yuno asked, "Then why ARE you here?"

"My master - that's that bastard Kotomine, if you want to know - told me to kill anybody who came into the church. So don't go upstairs, ok?" he smiled wanly, "He has gone to the von Einzbern estate to activate the Grail."

"I thought that you couldn't do that until all other Servants were defeated." Shirou said, glancing at Yuno.

"That crazy bastard said something about only needing all seven servant so reach Akasha, but that the Grail doesn't need as much energy to destroy the world, because that's what it is designed for."

"Wait – I thought it granted wishes?" Asked a surprised Shirou.

"Apparently not," Lancer scowled.

"Why would he want to go to Akasha?" demanded Yuno, "There's nothing there, at least, nothing that a human can see."

"Weren't you listening? Lancer said he's not looking for Akasha - he plans to destroy the world!" Shirou turned to the Servant, "Is that why you are telling us all this?"

"Yeah, pretty much. You seem like a good guy, and I would enjoy fighting you, but this situation... It's pretty fucked up. I didn't sign up to destroy the fucking world. I'm a hero. I spent my life protecting my clan and my queen. There's no way I'm going to go along with this shit." Lancer was getting more and more worked up as he spoke. One eye closed into a narrow slit, while the other opened all the way, showing red around it, giving him a mad, lopsided look.

"Uhm, yeah." Shirou said, "we're going to go stop him. Are you coming?"

"I have to stay and guard the church" growled the Servant of the spear.

Yuno nodded, and walked back to the generator. She picked up a can of gasoline and smiled, "I can help with that."

FSD*FSD

Shirou stood watching from the woods behind the church as flames flickered throughout the old building, greedily devouring the house of horrors. "I'm not certain if we did the right thing." He muttered.

Yuno stood up on tip toe and kissed Shirou on the cheek, "That's why I love you." She turned cheerfully to the blue garbed Servant, "So, you coming with us? We have a priest to kill."

"Fuck, yeah!"

FSD*FSD

Shirou and the two servants were approaching the ruins of the Von Einzbern mansion. Purple light emanated from it, and there were periodic rumbles and flashes of light.

"There's definitely something going on there."

"We can go through here" Yuno lead the other two along a hedgerow that she had scouted out last time. It would provide some cover.

The glow was coming from the body of Illya, which was hanging, supine, in the air. The body turned slowly, pulsing with the purple light. As they looked on, a mocking voice called out "And what have we here? It seems our lost lambs have all arrived at the same time" Gilgamesh materialized off to one side.

As the three heroes spread out around the golden King, Kotomine stepped out from behind some rubble, "Lancer, I am disappointed in you, my Servant. Now DIE" and a command seal glowed on his arm.

Lancer's eyes got big. In a swift motion, he flipped his lance around, braced it against the ground and lunged onto it. His body twitched once, before breaking up into sparkles of light.

"That's five" said Kirei happily. Illya's body gave a flash of light and stretched, slowly reforming itself into a human sized goblet.

"Why are you doing this?" demanded Shirou.

"Why? Because I'm evil" replied Kirei with a smile, "I'm the sort of evil that I used to hunt down and kill. I deserve to die." Shirou looked puzzled as Kotomine explained, "The reason is that I am planning to exterminate the human race. That way, another abomination like me will never be born."

"But then nobody will be born. Not even good people like, like Gandhi or Mother Teressa or..."

Kotomine smiled, "Oh, don't bother. I have thought of all those arguments. The other reason I'm doing this is because it's going to be FUN. I will get to watch the human race struggle against it's inevitable doom. Some people will rise to the greatest plateaus of heroism while others will plunge into the depths of villainy, but in the end, it will avail them naught!" he walked over the the floating goblet that was once Illya and patted it affectionately. "After all, if one does not strive to achieve one's potential, then one's existence is wasted. And since killing people is all the Grail is good for, so why deny it a meaningful existence?"

Yuno looked at Shirou in shock, "He's crazy!"

"But you have to admit, he's not boring" added Gilgamesh. The Gates of Babylon began to open, "And this will work better with you added to the Grail"

Yuno leaped aside as a sword shot out at her, "Shirou - take out the priest, I'll handle Gilgamesh!"

Shirou nodded, "got it!" He charged Kotomine, a pair of falchions materializing in his hands. As he approached, Kirei made a gesture, and black mud erupted from the Grail's mouth, aimed at Shirou.

The teen hero jumped aside. The next stream of mud he blocked with a falchion. But as soon as it touched it, the falchion dissolved, and Shirou had to project a replacement.

Gilgamesh lackadaisically fired off swords at Yuno, "A servant Assassin is no match for me. Not only was I summoned as an Archer class, but I am the King of Heroes. I was the first true hero. And you? You don't even have a legend to draw strength from."

Yuno dodged another pair of swords, but a third one ripped through her leg. She grimaced and kept moving.

"YEAAH!" Shirou screamed in pain as mud splattered onto him. The mud was filled with all the dark energy that humans have: hate and fear and anger and more hate. He tried to close to melee range with Kotomine, but the former Executer of the Church was too fast and too skilled. And he had another advantage - He didn't care if he died.

'_Why do I care if I live or not?'_ Shirou wondered at his new state of mind.

Another sword grazed Yuno's arm as Shiro'us pained scream echoed through the air '_If I don't do something, Shirou is going to get killed! Maybe Deux ex Machina will destroy me for this, or maybe not, but Shirou will have a chance'_ Yuno smiled as her True Love Diary told her how to avoid another barrage of swords, '_That was a very Shirou thought. He will be proud of me.'_ In the blink of an eye, a large sphere swallowed up both Yuno and Gilgamesh.

Another ball of mud splashed into Shirou's leg. He staggered as the immense pain of all that was wrong in the world slammed into him. Kirei smiled "Go ahead and scream. It's ok. Your shouldering all of the Earth's ills, after all" He sent another blast of mud at the teen.

Shirou collapsed in agony. Jealousy, impotent rage, hatred, gnawing anger. All of these ate away at Shirou's consciousness._ 'I can't... I can't die. Not until everybody is safe. I am responsible. For Rin. For Yuno. For Sakura.'_

Kirei paced around the prone teen, looking to get a better angle for a finishing blow "This whole Grail War has been a mess, with one of the Servants disappearing off the face of the earth instead of filling the grail, and the Grail's homunculus getting killed. That's why I decided to rush things a little before anything else went wrong." the priest tutted at the sloppiness of it all. "But to my great surprise I recently discovered that some kind soul thoughtfully put a spare Servant in the Grail. I think he wants to be named Avenger, but I'll just call him Toast. And with your servant here, I won't even have to make use of good old Gil," Kirei appeared ambivalent, as if he wasn't certain that not betraying his best friend was a good thing. "Now I'll have more than enough power to get my wish."

'_This hurts like the Fire.' _Shirou tried to stand, '_It's just like the Fire._'

He collapsed, muttering "All the world's ills.." He had a thought.

"I am the bone of my sword.  
Steel is my body, and fire is my blood.  
I have created over a thousand blades.  
aware of love, and aware of loss

Having withstood pain to create many weapons,  
I have no regrets. This is the only path  
So as I pray, "Unlimited Blade Works."

The red World of Swords bloomed around Shirou and Kotomine

FSD*FSD

"A Reality Marble?" Gilgamesh looked around him in bemusement. He was standing on the roof of a ruined middle school. The sky was dark, with clouds roiling. Rubble was strewn everywhere. "You think that will help you?" Gilgamesh withdrew Ea from the Gate of Babylon, "I will simply annihilate your little world." The sword began to spin, giving off flashes of red light. _'This will be no different than the fight against Rider in the Fourth war. What a pathetic buffoon.'_

Yuno floated up into the air, smiling, "Yes, it will help. For here, I am god." a blast of pure energy smashed into Gilgamesh, throwing him off his feet.

FSD*FSD

"This will help" Shirou staggered up as Kirei realized that the Grail was not at his side anymore - he was now cut off from the source of the black mud. He held his hands out, and materialized a set of Black Keys. "Very well" he said, "We we will have to do this the hard way" Kirei took a fighting stance.

Shirou reinforced his muscles to full capacity and surged forward, meeting the priest, sword against sword.

Kire sprang back and threw a Black Key. Shirou deflected it and flung a falchion at the priest. They circled each other throwing weapons and darting in to exchange blows.

FSD*FSD

Gilgamesh tried to find a moment to charge up Ea, but Yuno kept pressing him, sending blasts of concussive force and odd balls that grew from marble size to as big as a house. Gilgamesh managed to deflect most of them, but he was still battered from side to side, giving him little time to counter attack.

"I am the first hero! the greatest hero of all!" Gilgamesh shot out out an unending stream of swords at Yuno, who was forced onto the defensive, destroying the swords with a fusillade of ornately patterned marbles. "I will not be defeated by some no-name upstart."

Yuno flew up and above the Gates of Babylon, "I already told you my name. I AM GOD!" and released a fearsome barrage of giant spheres that smashed down, one after the next, crushing everything below her into tiny shards.

The gate of Babylon ripped and tore. Gilgamesh raised Ea, shattering sphere after sphere with its fearsome might, but there were too many - he staggered back as one clipped him in the side. He twisted to regain his footing, but another concussive sphere smashed into his sword hand, leaving him unable to deflect the next. Or the next. Or the one after that.

FSD*FSD

Kirei was fast, and more skilled that Shirou, but the very world around them was fighting on Shirou's side. As Shirou leaped aside from a blow that would have decapitated him, Kirei's foot slipped on something, plunging him down to the ground. The former Executor landed hard on a shard of Clarent, a broken sword that had jutted up from the ground, as if reaching for the fallen priest.

Kirei staggered up, a hand to his stomach, as blood gushed from his wound. "Heh. That's amusing" He swayed and fell to his knees. Shirou watched cautiously. Blood continued to leak from between Kotominei's fingers. "You win. Good game" and collapsed.

Shirou released his Reality Marble.

As he looked around, Yuno stumbled out of this air, looking exhausted. Suddenly, she dropped to her knees as pain twisted through her, a burning agony that spasmed through her body. Shirou ran to her as she convulsed and gently held her as she screamed in agony.

She twisted and smashed against him for unending minutes.

Yuno vomited as the pain receded. "I don't think I can do that again." For a moment, it had felt as if her body was going to tear itself apart into a thousand pieces.

Shirou helped her stand. "Sorry," she smiled up at him, as she used her sleeve to wipe her face, "That wasn't very romantic."

Shirou surveyed the carnage, "I guess we saved the world". He had to cover his eyes as the remains of the Grail dissolved in a flash of light.

"See, you kept your promise to prevent innocent bystanders from getting hurt."

Shirou nodded. "Yeah. But what I'm really glad about is that you're ok. I am sorry that you don't get to make your wish though."

Yuno smiled and cocked her head to one side, "It's ok, I decided that I didn't want that wish anyway." '_I have a different wish now.'_

Shirou stood in front of Yuno, for a long moment _'It's the least I can do'_. He took a deep breath and breathed it out slowly to calm himself, and began "You asked me if I loved you.. And I think I do. You're not what I expected. You disagree with a lot of my ideals, but you understand why they are important to me. I don't think anybody except maybe Saber has before."

Yuno's stepped in and gave Shirou a gentle kiss before stepping back to look at him with a radiant smile, and Shirou gently put his arms around her. The two stood looking at each other, smiling.

Then a puzzled frown crossed Shirou's face, "I thought that as a Servant of the Grail, you would have to go back to the Throne of Heroes once the Grail was gone..."

"I am not a hero. I was physically present in Akasha when the Grail pulled me to your world, so this is the real, live me." Yuno smiled up at Shirou, "And wherever in the world you go, I will go with you, forever and ever, in this life and the next."

GOOD END?

One note: several people commented that Gilgamesh pulled out Ea for no good reason. My reply was that Gilgamesh was having a bad day: The woman he had decided would be his trophy wife (-of-the-day) had apparently disappeared, or possibly never even been there (apparantly he, much like Caster from ther fourth war, has trouble telling Joan and Arturia apart). Kirei, his main source of amusement, is all in a panic about the missing Servant and being BORING. And this little upstart is STEALING his treasures. Or at least copying them, which really is the same thing.

So Gilgamesh felt the need to assert his masculinity and smash Shirou like a bug.

And in this chapter he had a premonition that something wasn't right (it wasn't - he got curb stomped by Assassin)


	10. epilogue (TRUE end)

Several weeks after the chaos of the Grail war was over, at the von Einzbern estate:

A ripple appeared in the air, over where the main hall used to be, and a body fell through, hitting the ground with an "oof".

Sakura sat up, "well this place is a mess" she said to no one in particular. Though she herself did not look so good. She was dangerously gaunt, she had three marks on her arm that gave off a fiery glow and her hair had turned white. But her eyes looked awake and vivacious. Over all, she appeared like somebody who had recently gotten over a terrible illness.

Just as she got up to her feet, the air rippled again, dropping a badly beat up Saber to the ground. "Oof".

Sakura rushed over and helped him up, "Don't worry, I'll take care of you. It's my turn now." As she helped the injured man stand up (over his protests that he didn't need help), being careful of his missing right hand, she glanced at her own left hand. "We'll have to get something a little more permanent now" she said gesturing to the (Projected) ring on her finger. Healing the gash in her side wasn't too hard for a Noble Phantasm of Avalon's caliber, but purging the Crestworms - that had take a lot of time, and it had to be done where Zouken couldn't trigger them to 'self destruct' Sakura.

Maintaining the Reality Marble for that whole time as well as Saber and Avalon, had taken A LOT of prana. Much more than just becoming Saber's Master had provided. So they had had to use the same method as back in the cottage. And, well, she had insisted that Saber 'do the right thing'. She blushed slightly, even though she was thinking about the topic in euphemisms. But she was in control of herself for the first time in a decade, and it had been HER decision. One that she was happy with.

Sakura held tight to EMYA, whether for support or to hold him up or for some other reason was unclear. "Come on - we have to go open that little bistro that we were talking about."


End file.
